CONTENT CARRIED RATINGS BASED CONTROL

• US 20140068652A1
• Filed: 08/28/2012
• Published: 03/06/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/28/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Mohr, Grant, Mountanos, Pete, Ramasubramanian, Anand, Takahashi, Eduardo, Toomey, Donal
• Granted Patent: US 9,043,825 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/25
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/00 Editing; Indexing; Addressing; Timing or synchronising; Monitoring; Measuring tape travel
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4542 Blocking scenes or portions of the received content, e.g. censoring scenes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8352 involving content or source identification data, e.g. Unique Material Identifier [UMID]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/85406 involving a specific file format, e.g. MP4 format

Abstract

Example apparatus and methods concern selectively accepting or rejecting content based on ratings identifier information included in the content. Example apparatus and methods facilitate identifying a content fragment (e.g., f-MP4 fragment) to be rejected based on an identifier located in the fragment rather than information located in some external source (e,g., Event Information Table (EIT)). One example method includes identifying a fragment based on a ratings identifier encoded as a universally unique identifier (UUID) in the fragment and then selectively accepting or rejecting the fragment based on the rating. Rather than rely only on a predicted start time, a predicted end time, a predicted source, and a pre determined coarse-grained rating, example apparatus and methods may be better prepared to account for unanticipated start times, ending times, schedule changes, and source changes, and may provide finer grained user control based on ratings carried in content.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

accessing a ratings identifier encoded as a universally unique identifier (UUID) in a fragmented MPEG-4 (f-MP4) fragment, and

selectively accepting or rejecting the fragment as a function of the ratings identifier.

2. The method of claim 1, comprising:

accessing the ratings identifier from an instance of the fragment received on an input stream from which the fragment is to be accepted.

3. The method of claim 1, comprising:

accessing the ratings identifier from an instance of the fragment received on a second input stream different from the input stream from which the fragment is to be accepted, the second input stream and the input stream carrying the same content at different quality levels.

4. The method of claim 1, where the ratings identifier provides information for two or more attributes of content in the fragment.

5. The method of claim 1, comprising:

accessing the ratings identifier from an instance of the fragment stored in a data store.

6. The method of claim 1, comprising:

selectively accepting the fragment based on a combination of the ratings identifier and a time at which the fragment was received.

7. The method of claim 1, comprising:

selectively accepting the fragment based on a combination of the ratings identifier and a source from which the fragment was received.

8. The method of claim 1, comprising:

selectively accepting the fragment based on a combination of the ratings identifier, a time at which the fragment was received, and a source from which the fragment was received.

9. The method of claim 1, comprising:

controlling one of, a television, a computer, a laptop computer, a tablet computer, a personal electronic device, and a smart phone to access and analyze the ratings identifier and to selectively accept or reject the fragment.

10. The method of claim 1, comprising:

controlling a cloud service to access and analyze the ratings identifier; and

controlling one of, a television, a computer, a laptop computer, a tablet computer, a personal electronic device, and a smart phone to accept or reject the fragment based, at least in part, on the access and analysis performed by the cloud service.

11. A computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that when executed by a computer control the computer to perform a method, the method comprising:

accessing and analyzing a ratings identifier encoded as a universally unique identifier (UUID) in a fragmented MPEG-4 (f-MP4) fragment, and

selectively accepting or rejecting the fragment as a function of the ratings identifier,

where the ratings identifier is accessed in an instance of the fragment received on one of, a first stream from which the f-MP4 fragment is to be accepted, a second stream other than the stream from which the f-MP4 fragment is to be accepted, and a data store, where fragments appearing on the first stream and on the second stream are aligned on fragment boundaries,

where accepting or rejecting the fragment is a function of a combination of the ratings identifier encoded in the UUID, a time at which the fragment was received, and a source from which the fragment was received,

where the ratings identifier provides information for two or more attributes of content in the fragment,

where accessing the ratings identifier comprises controlling one of, a television, a digital video recorder, a computer, a laptop computer, a tablet computer, a personal electronic device, a smart phone, and a cloud-based service to analyze the fragment, and

where accepting or rejecting the fragment comprises controlling one of, a television, a digital video recorder, a computer, a laptop computer, a tablet computer, a personal electronic device, a smart phone, and a cloud-based service to reject or to receive the fragment.

12. An apparatus, comprising:

a processor;

a memory;

a set of logics configured to selectively reject digital content fragments; and

an interface to connect the processor, the memory, and the set of logics;

the set of logics comprising;

a first logic configured to identify a fragment to reject based on information located in the fragment; and

a second logic configured to reject the fragment.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, where the first logic is configured to identify the fragment based on a ratings identifier located in the fragment.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, where the ratings identifier provides information about two or more attributes of the content in the fragment.

15. The apparatus of claim 12, the fragment being a fragmented MPEG-4 fragment.

16. The apparatus of claim 12, where the second logic is configured to reject the fragment from a communication source from which the first logic identified the fragment.

17. The apparatus of claim 12, where the second logic is configured to reject the fragment from a second communication source other than the communication source from which the first logic identified the fragment.

18. The apparatus of claim 12, where the memory is configured to store one or more fragments,

where the first logic is configured to examine the memory to identify the fragment, and

where the first logic is configured to examine the memory in response to one or more of, a user initiated action, a scheduled action, a periodic action, and an event-driven action.

19. The apparatus of claim 12, the apparatus being one of, a television, a digital video recorder, a computer, a laptop computer, a tablet computer, a personal electronic device, and a smart phone.

20. The apparatus of claim 17, comprising a third logic configured to receive a control signal from a service located external to the apparatus, and where the second logic is configured to reject the fragment based, at least in part, on the control signal.