Automatic censorship of audio data for broadcast
First Claim
1. A method for automatically censoring audio data, comprising the steps of:
- (a) automatically processing the audio data to detect any undesired speech that may be included therein, by comparison to undesired speech data, by performing the following steps;
comparing words in the audio data against words comprising the undesired speech, to identify potential matches;
dynamically varying a probability threshold dependent upon at least one criterion; and
based upon a probability of a potential match and the probability threshold, determining whether any undesired speech is included in the audio data;
(b) for each occurrence of undesired speech that is automatically detected, altering the undesired speech detected in the audio data, producing censored audio data in which the undesired speech is substantially no longer perceivable by a listening audience; and
(c) dynamically adjusting the probability threshold based upon a frequency with which undesired speech by a specific speaker is detected in the audio data, so that as the occurrences of undesired speech that are detected increase, the probability threshold is reduced.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An input audio data stream comprising speech is processed by an automatic censoring filter in either a real-time mode, or a batch mode, producing censored speech that has been altered so that undesired words or phrases are either unintelligible or inaudible. The automatic censoring filter employs a lattice comprising either phonemes and/or words derived from phonemes for comparison against corresponding phonemes or words included in undesired speech data. If the probability that a phoneme or word in the input audio data stream matches a corresponding phoneme or word in the undesired speech data is greater than a probability threshold, the input audio data stream is altered so that the undesired word or a phrase comprising a plurality of such words is unintelligible or inaudible. The censored speech can either be stored or made available to an audience in real-time.
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Citations
19 Claims
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1. A method for automatically censoring audio data, comprising the steps of:
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(a) automatically processing the audio data to detect any undesired speech that may be included therein, by comparison to undesired speech data, by performing the following steps; comparing words in the audio data against words comprising the undesired speech, to identify potential matches; dynamically varying a probability threshold dependent upon at least one criterion; and based upon a probability of a potential match and the probability threshold, determining whether any undesired speech is included in the audio data; (b) for each occurrence of undesired speech that is automatically detected, altering the undesired speech detected in the audio data, producing censored audio data in which the undesired speech is substantially no longer perceivable by a listening audience; and (c) dynamically adjusting the probability threshold based upon a frequency with which undesired speech by a specific speaker is detected in the audio data, so that as the occurrences of undesired speech that are detected increase, the probability threshold is reduced. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. A method for automatically censoring audio data to prevent undesired speech included therein from being understandable by an audience who may be listening to the audio data, comprising the steps of:
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(a) accessing grammar data and undesired speech data that are in a desired format selected to be usable for comparison to the audio data; (b) processing the audio data to produce processed audio data that is in the desired format by performing the following steps; generating a lattice of phonemes comprising word fragments that are likely included in the audio data; comparing the word fragments against corresponding word fragments that are included in the undesired speech data, to identify potential matches; dynamically varying a probability threshold dependent upon at least one criterion; and based upon a probability of a potential match and the probability threshold, determining whether any undesired speech is included in the audio data; (c) if portions of the processed audio data are found to match any undesired speech, altering the audio data to produce censored audio data in which each occurrence of undesired speech is made incapable of being understood by the audience, else if none of the audio data is found to match any undesired speech, the audio data are not so altered; and (d) dynamically adjusting the probability threshold based upon a frequency with which undesired speech by a specific speaker is detected in the audio data, so that as the occurrences of undesired speech that are detected increase, the probability threshold is reduced. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A system for automatically censoring audio data to prevent undesired speech included therein from being understandable by an audience who may be listening to the audio data, comprising:
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(a) a memory in which the undesired speech data and machine instructions are stored and which at least temporarily stores the audio data; (b) a processor that is coupled to the memory and able to access the audio data at least temporarily stored therein, the processor executing the machine instructions, causing the processor to carry out a plurality of functions, including; (i) automatically processing the audio data to detect any undesired speech that may be included therein by performing the following steps; generating a lattice of phonemes comprising word fragments that are likely included in the audio data; comparing the word fragments against corresponding word fragments that are included in the undesired speech data, to identify potential matches; dynamically varying a probability threshold dependent upon at least one criterion; and based upon a probability of a potential match and the probability threshold, determining whether any undesired speech is included in the audio data; (ii) for each occurrence of undesired speech that is automatically detected, altering the occurrence in the audio data, producing censored audio data in which the undesired speech is substantially no longer perceivable by a listening audience; and (iii) dynamically adjusting the probability threshold based upon a frequency with which undesired speech by a specific speaker is detected in the audio data, so that as the occurrences of undesired speech that are detected increase, the probability threshold is reduced. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18)
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19. A system for automatically censoring audio data to prevent undesired speech included therein from being understandable by an audience who may be listening to the audio data, comprising:
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(a) a memory in which the undesired speech data and machine instructions are stored and which at least temporarily stores the audio data; (b) a processor that is coupled to the memory and able to access the audio data at least temporarily stored therein, the processor executing the machine instructions, causing the processor to carry out a plurality of functions, including; (i) automatically processing the audio data to detect any undesired speech that may be included therein by performing the following steps; comparing words in the audio data against words comprising the undesired speech, to identify potential matches; dynamically varying a probability threshold dependent upon at least one criterion; and based upon a probability of a potential match and the probability threshold, determining whether any undesired speech is included in the audio data; (ii) for each occurrence of undesired speech that is automatically detected, altering the undesired speech detected in the audio data, producing censored audio data in which the undesired speech is substantially no longer perceivable by a listening audience; and (iii) dynamically adjusting the probability threshold based upon a frequency with which undesired speech by a specific speaker is detected in the audio data, so that as the occurrences of undesired speech that are detected increase, the probability threshold is reduced.
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Specification