Interactive television program guide system with multiple account parental control

• US 6,922,843 B1
• Filed: 08/09/2000
• Issued: 07/26/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 08/09/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: UV Corporation (Adeia Inc.)
• Original Assignee: United Video Properties Incorporated (Adeia Inc.)
• Inventors: Ellis, Michael D., Herrington, W. Benjamin, Knudson, Edward B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Miller, John
• Assistant Examiner(s): BELIVEAU, SCOTT E
• Application Number:
  US09/635,596
• Time in Patent Office: 1,812 Days
• Field of Search: 725/9, 725/11, 725/39, 725/40, 725/46, 725 1- 8, 725 14- 20, 725 25- 31, 725 60- 61
• US Class Current: 725/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44222 Analytics of user selections, e.g. selection of programs or purchase activity monitoring of user selections in data processing systems G06F11/34; arrangements for monitoring the user's behaviour or opinions in broadcast systems H04H60/33
• 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 21/4542 Blocking scenes or portions of the received content, e.g. censoring scenes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4667 Processing of monitored end-user data, e.g. trend analysis based on the log file of viewer selections
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47211 for requesting pay-per-view content payment schemes payment architectures or payment protocols G06Q20/00, G07F
• 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 21/488 Data services, e.g. news ticker systems specially adapted for using meteorological information in broadcast systems H04H60/71
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/163 by receiver means only

Abstract

A system with parental control features is provided. The system may be switched between single account control and multiple account control. Each account may have a program control code and a purchase control code. A user may set parental control criteria for controlling access to programming for each account. A user may set purchase control criteria for controlling purchasing for each account. The system may remove a block on parentally-controlled activity when an authorized user enters an appropriate purchase or program control code. Every activity that matches any of the parental control criteria may be blocked and authorized user login may be required. The system may provide a selectable bypass locks feature. The system may present targeted advertising based on which code was entered last. The system may track account usage and provide information related to usage.

Claims

1. An interactive television system having user television equipment on which an interactive television application is at least partially implemented to provide parental control of television programming that is available for viewing by users without purchasing, said user television equipment, being configured to:

support multiple user accounts using the interactive television application, wherein each of the user accounts has an associated personal identification code;

set parental control criteria for each of the user accounts using the interactive television application;

block the television programming that matches at least one of the parental control criteria;

allow a user to view the blocked television programming by entering a personal identification code associated with one of the user accounts that has parental control criteria that permits viewing of the blocked television programming;

track the blocked television programming that has been viewed based on the personal identification code that was entered to view the television programming; and

display a log of blocked television programming that has been viewed without purchasing, wherein the log includes information on the multiple user accounts that are associated with the personal identification codes that were entered to view the blocked television programming and wherein the information on the multiple user accounts further includes account names that correspond to the personal identification codes that were entered to view the blocked television programming.

2. The system defined in claim 1 wherein at least one of the user accounts has been designated as a parent account and at least one of the user accounts is designated as a child account.

3. The system defined in claim 2 wherein the parent account is without restrictions on television programming viewing.

4. The system defined in claim 2 wherein the user television equipment is further configured to temporarily bypass blocking of television programming on entry of the personal identification code for the parent account.

5. The system defined in claim 1 wherein advertisements are targeted based on which personal identification code was most recently entered.

6. The system defined in claim 1 wherein the interactive television application is an interactive television program guide application.

7. A method for use in an interactive television system having user television equipment on which an interactive television application is at least partially implemented to provide parental control of television programming that is available for viewing by users without purchasing, comprising:

using the interactive television application to support multiple user accounts, wherein each of the user accounts has an associated personal identification code;

setting parental control criteria for each of the user accounts;

blocking the television programming that match at least one of the parental control criteria;

allowing a user to view the blocked television programming by entering a personal identification code associated with one of the user accounts that has parental control criteria that permits viewing of the blocked television programming;

tracking the blocked television programming that has been viewed based on the personal identification code that was entered to view the television programming; and

displaying a log of blocked television programming that has been viewed without purchasing, wherein the log includes information on the multiple user accounts that are associated with the personal identification codes that were entered to view the blocked television programming and wherein the information on the multiple user accounts further includes account names that correspond to the personal identification codes that were entered to view the blocked television programming.

8. The method defined in claim 7 further comprising:

designating at least one of the user accounts as a parent account; and

designating at least one of the user accounts as a child account.

9. The method defined in claim 8 wherein the parent account is without restrictions on television programming viewing.

10. The method defined in claim 8 further comprising temporarily bypassing the blocking of television programming on entry of the personal identification code for the parent account.

11. The method defined in claim 7 further comprising targeting advertisements based on which personal identification code was most recently entered.

12. The method defined in claim 7 wherein the interactive television application is an interactive television program guide application.

22. The machine-readable media defined in claim 8 is further encoded with machine-readable instructions thereon for temporarily bypassing the blocking of television programming on entry of the personal identification code for the parent account.

13. An interactive television system having user television equipment on which an interactive television application is at least partially implemented to provide parental control of television programming that is available for viewing by users without purchasing, comprising:

means for using the interactive television application to support multiple user accounts, wherein each of the user accounts has an associated personal identification code;

means for setting parental control criteria for each of the user accounts;

means for blocking the television programming that match at least one of the parental control criteria;

means for allowing a user to view the blocked television programming by entering a personal identification code associated with one of the user accounts that has parental control criteria that permits viewing of the blocked television programming;

means for tracking the blocked television programming that has been viewed based on the personal identification code that was entered to view the television programming; and

means for displaying a log of blocked television programming that has been viewed without purchasing, wherein the log includes information on the multiple user accounts that are associated with the personal identification codes that were entered to view the blocked television programming and wherein the information on the multiple user accounts further includes account names that correspond to the personal identification codes that were entered to view the blocked television programming.

14. The system defined in claim 13 further comprising:

means for designating at least one of the user accounts as a parent account; and

means for designating at least one of the user accounts as a child account.

15. The system defined in claim 14 wherein the parent account is without restrictions on television programming viewing.

16. The system defined in claim 14 further comprising means for temporarily bypassing the blocking of television programming on entry of the personal identification code for the parent account.

17. The system defined in claim 13 further comprising means for targeting advertisements based on which personal identification code was most recently entered.

18. The system defined in claim 13 wherein the interactive television application is an interactive television program guide application.

19. Machine-readable media for use in an interactive television system having user television equipment on which an interactive television application is at least partially implemented to provide parental control of television programming that is available for viewing by users without purchasing, wherein the machine-readable media is encoded with machine-readable instructions thereon for:

using the interactive television application to support multiple user accounts, wherein each of the user accounts has an associated personal identification code;

setting parental control criteria for each of the user accounts;

blocking the television programming that match at least one of the parental control criteria;

allowing a user to view the blocked television programming by entering a personal identification code associated with one of the user accounts that has parental control criteria that permits viewing of the blocked television programming;

tracking the blocked television programming that has been viewed based on the personal identification code that was entered to view the television programming; and

displaying a log of blocked television programming that has been viewed without purchasing, wherein the log includes information on the multiple user accounts that are associated with the personal identification codes that were entered to view the blocked television programming and wherein the information on the multiple user accounts further includes account names that correspond to the personal identification codes that were entered to view the blocked television programming.

20. The machine-readable media defined in claim 19 is further encoded with machine-readable instructions thereon for:

designating at least one of the user accounts as a parent account; and

designating at least one of the user accounts as a child account.

21. The machine-readable media defined in claim 20 wherein the parent account is without restrictions on television programming viewing.

23. The machine-readable media defined in claim 19 is further encoded with machine-readable instructions thereon for targeting advertisements based on which personal identification code was most recently entered.

24. The machine-readable media defined in claim 19 wherein the interactive television application is an interactive television program guide application.