System for improved parental control of television use

• US 6,072,520 A
• Filed: 06/25/1999
• Issued: 06/06/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 07/29/1993
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Gemstar Development Corporation (Adeia Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Gemstar Development Corporation (Adeia Inc.)
• Inventors: Mankovitz, Roy J., Kwoh, Daniel S., Yuen, Henry C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hsia, Sherrie
• Application Number:
  US09/344,634
• Time in Patent Office: 347 Days
• Field of Search: 348/569, 348/906, 348/705, 348/706, 348/563, 348/564, 348/567, 348/5.5, 348/7, 348/10, 348/11, 348/465, 348/468, 380/10, 380/13, 380/23, 380/20
• US Class Current: 725/27
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/107 of operating tapes
• CPC Class Codes: H04K 2203/14 for the transfer of light or images, e.g. for video-surveillance, for television or from a computer screen
• CPC Class Codes: H04K 3/42 characterized by the control of the jamming frequency or wavelength
• CPC Class Codes: H04K 3/825 by jamming
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/441 Acquiring end-user identification , e.g. using personal code sent by the remote control or by inserting a card
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4532 involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4751 for defining user accounts, e.g. accounts for children
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4753 for user identification, e.g. by entering a PIN or password cryptographic authentication protocols H04L9/32; networks authentication protocols H04L63/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/765 Interface circuits between an apparatus for recording and another apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/782 on tape
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/0887 for the transmission of programme or channel identifying signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/163 by receiver means only
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/166 Passage/non-passage of the television signal, e.g. jamming, band suppression scrambling and descrambling H04N7/167

Abstract

An apparatus and method for parental control of television programs. Program schedule information including program titles are stored in a memory and displayed on a monitor. Compressed code is entered for the programs to be blocked. Alternatively, one or more program titles are selected from the displayed program schedule information for blocking by a parental control circuitry connected to a controller.

Claims

1. An apparatus for controlling the coupling of a television signal having a plurality of channels to a display monitor, comprising:

a memory for storing television program schedule information including program titles for a plurality of television programs;

means for displaying the schedule information including program titles on the display monitor;

means for selecting a subset of the program titles from the displayed schedule information; and

a parental control circuitry for blocking one of the channels of the television signal from the display monitor as a function of the television program schedule information for the selected subset of the program titles.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said television program schedule information comprises a telecast channel, a telecast time and a length of telecast for each of the television programs, and wherein said control circuitry acquires control of a channel of the television signal corresponding to a telecast channel of one of the television programs of the selected subset when a telecast time of said one of the television programs of the selected subset equals current time, and blocks the channel for a duration equal to the length of the telecast of said one of the television programs of the selected subset.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein said control circuitry further comprises a second memory for storing the television program schedule information for the selected subset of the program titles.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein the television program schedule information for the selected subset of the program titles are stored in a second memory in temporal order.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising means for blocking the display of schedule information on the display monitor for the blocked channel.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein said selecting means comprises a remote controller having at least a first key for selectively positioning a cursor on a television program displayed on the monitor, and a second key for selecting the displayed program title.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a vertical blanking interval decoder for extracting the television program schedule information from a vertical blanking interval portion of the television signal and coupling the television program schedule information to said memory.

8. A method for controlling access to television programs comprising the steps of:

storing television program schedule information including program titles for a plurality of television programs;

displaying the schedule information including program titles on a display monitor;

selecting a subset of the program titles from the displayed schedule information; and

blocking one of the television programs from being displayed on the display monitor as a function of the television program schedule information for the selected subset.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the selecting step further comprises the step of selectively positioning a cursor on a displayed television title, and activating an input device for entering the displayed program title into the selected subset.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein the storing step further comprises the step of extracting the television program schedule information from a vertical blanking interval portion of a television signal and loading the extracted television program schedule information into a memory.

11. The method of claim 8 further comprising the step of selectively tuning one of the channels of a television signal, and wherein the blocking step further comprises the step of controlling a tuner to block the selectively tuned channel from the display monitor.