METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING CONTENT SCREENING AND RATING

• US 20150095014A1
• Filed: 09/27/2013
• Published: 04/02/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/27/2013
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Cellco Partnership, Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cellco Partnership, Inc. (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: MARIMUTHU, Ramesh
• Application Number:
  US14/039,989
• Publication Number:
  US 20150095014A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/9
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/242 Dictionaries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/284 Lexical analysis, e.g. tokenisation or collocates
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/30 Semantic analysis
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4542 Blocking scenes or portions of the received content, e.g. censoring scenes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4756 for rating content, e.g. scoring a recommended movie

Abstract

An approach is provided for content screening and rating. A content rating platform processes content directed to or originating from a user to determine one or more elements in the content. The content rating platform calculates a content rating for the content by comparing the one or more elements against at least one user-configurable dictionary, and then selects an operation for processing the content based on the content rating.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

processing content directed to or originating from a user to determine one or more elements in the content;

calculating a content rating for the content by comparing the one or more elements against at least one user-configurable dictionary; and

selecting an operation for processing the content based on the content rating.

2. A method of claim 1, wherein the operation is a screening operation, the method further comprising:

blocking or masking the one or more elements in the content to generate screened content; and

presenting the screened content in place of the content.

3. A method of claim 2, wherein the masking includes a substitution of the one or more elements, the method further comprising:

selecting one or more substitute elements from a replacement dictionary.

4. A method of claim 1, further comprising:

calculating an originator rating for an originator of the content based on the content rating.

5. A method of claim 4, further comprising:

updating the originator rating based on one or more other content ratings associated with other content directed to the user by the originator.

6. A method of claim 4, further comprising:

presenting a user interface for depicting a representation of the content rating, the originator rating, or a combination thereof.

7. A method of claim 1, further comprising:

presenting an alert regarding the content rating on detecting a request to access the content.

8. A method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether to initiate the processing of the content, the calculating of the content rating, the selecting of the operation, or a combination thereof based on one or more contextual parameters associated with the content, the user, a device associated with the user, or a combination thereof.

9. A method of claim 1, wherein the at least one user-configurable dictionary is based on one or more themes.

10. A method of claim 1, wherein the content includes communications content, media content, gaming content, application content, or a combination thereof.

11. An apparatus comprising at least one processor configured to:

process content directed to or originating from a user to determine one or more elements in the content;

calculate a content rating for the content by comparing the one or more elements against at least one user-configurable dictionary; and

select an operation for processing the content based on the content rating.

12. An apparatus of claim 11, wherein the operation is a screening operation, and wherein the apparatus is further configured to:

block or mask the one or more elements in the content to generate screened content; and

present the screened content in place of the content.

13. An apparatus of claim 12, wherein the masking includes a substitution of the one or more elements, and wherein the apparatus is further configured to:

select one or more substitute elements from a replacement dictionary.

14. An apparatus of claim 11, wherein the apparatus is further configured to:

calculate an originator rating for an originator of the content based on the content rating.

15. An apparatus of claim 14, wherein the apparatus is further configured to:

update the originator rating based on one or more other content ratings associated with other content directed to the user by the originator.

16. An apparatus of claim 14, wherein the apparatus is further configured to:

present a user interface for depicting a representation of the content rating, the originator rating, or a combination thereof.

17. An apparatus of claim 11, wherein the apparatus is further configured to:

determining whether to initiate the processing of the content, the calculating of the content rating, the selecting of the operation, or a combination thereof based on one or more contextual parameters associated with the content, the user, a device associated with the user, or a combination thereof.

18. A system comprising a content rating platform configured to:

process content directed to or originating from a user to determine one or more elements in the content;

calculate a content rating for the content by comparing the one or more elements against at least one user-configurable dictionary; and

select an operation for processing the content based on the content rating.

19. A system of claim 18, wherein the operation is a screening operation, and wherein the content rating platform is further configured to:

block or mask the one or more elements in the content to generate screened content; and

present the screened content in place of the content.

20. A system of claim 18, wherein the content rating platform is further configured to:

calculate an originator rating for an originator of the content based on the content rating; and

update the originator rating based on one or more other content ratings associated with other content directed to the user by the originator.