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Video cassette recorder protection system

  • US 5,214,556 A
  • Filed: 02/04/1992
  • Issued: 05/25/1993
  • Est. Priority Date: 04/14/1989
  • Status: Expired due to Fees
First Claim
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1. A protection system to establish selective playback capability for use with a video display system comprising:

  • information containing means positioned on a housing associated with video material to be viewed on said video display system, said information containing means including information relating to one of at least three rating levels representative of the rating of said video material,sensing means comprises of at least one optical sensor fixedly associated with said video display system to detect and read said information containing means and generate a control signal corresponding to said one rating level of the said at least three rating levels of said video material from said information containing means,rating selection means allowing a user to independently and selectively pre-select one of said at least three rating levels wherein said pre-selected rating level will determine the rating of said video material which can be viewed on said video display system, said rating selection means generating a reference signal corresponding to said pre-selected rating level;

    processing means to receive said control signal from said sensing means and said reference signal from said rating selection means for comparison of said control signal to said reference signal and wherein said processing means is coupled to said video display system and will prevent viewing of video material having a rating level indicated by said information containing means which is above said pre-selected rating level;

    wherein said information containing means is positioned on said housing at a predetermined position which is readable by said sensing means, and said sensing means detects the presence of said information containing means such that if no information containing means is present, said processing system will prevent viewing of video material on said video display system, and,wherein said at least one optical sensor transmits a light signal against a portion of said information containing means to be reflected back and detected, wherein the reflected signals will provide on/off signals dependent on said portion of said information containing means from which said reflected signals are received to generate said control signal representative of said rating of said video material.

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