Delivery of navigation data for playback of audio and video content

• US 7,543,318 B2
• Filed: 04/17/2007
• Issued: 06/02/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/23/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Clearplay Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Clearplay Incorporated
• Inventors: Jarman, Matthew T.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lonsberry; Hunter B.
• Application Number:
  US11/736,312
• Publication Number:
  US 20070288516A1
• Time in Patent Office: 777 Days
• Field of Search: 725/25, 725/28, 725/133, 725/153, 386/1, 386/46
• US Class Current: 725/28
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/2562 DVDs [digital versatile discs]; Digital video discs; MMCDs; HDCDs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/105 of operating discs
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4135 external recorder interface circuits between an apparatus for recording television signals and a television receiver H04N5/775
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4318 by altering the content in the rendering process, e.g. blanking, blurring or masking an image region image enhancement or restoration in general G06T5/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4396 by muting the audio signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44204 Monitoring of content usage, e.g. the number of times a movie has been viewed, copied or the amount which has been watched monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; protecting generic digital content where the protection is independent of the precise nature of the content G06F21/10; arrangements for monitoring the use made of the broadcast services in broadcast systems H04H60/31
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4542 Blocking scenes or portions of the received content, e.g. censoring scenes

Abstract

In accordance with the present invention a filtering process is based on the output side of a multimedia decoder. A navigator, located at a server system, monitors the current play position of multimedia content at a consumer system and compares that position with navigation objects. Each navigation object defines a start position, a stop position, and a filtering action to perform on the portion of the multimedia content that begins at the start position and ends at the stop position. When the current play position falls within the portion of multimedia content defined by a particular navigation object, the navigator sends the filtering action to the consumer system for processing. Filtering actions include skipping, muting, reframing, etc., the portion of multimedia content defined by a navigation object. Alternatively, the navigator may be located at a consumer system and the server system may provide access to the navigation objects (e.g. download) so that the consumer system monitors and filters the multimedia content based on the received navigation objects. A variety of systems may be used to implement the present invention, such as computer systems (consumer and server), television systems, and audio systems.

Claims

1. A computing system comprising:

a first computer readable media including computer executable instructions comprising;

a multimedia content navigation object comprising;

a start indicator associated with a first position in a multimedia content presentation;

an end indicator associated with a second position in the multimedia content presentation;

at least one content descriptor identifying a type of multimedia content associated with the multimedia content presentation between the first position and the second position;

at least one filtering action associated with the start indicator and the end indicator, the at least one filtering action comprising a skip filtering action; and

at least one processor in communication with the first computer readable media and configured to decode and deliver the multimedia content to a display, the at least one processor further configured to monitor a position code of the multimedia content during decoding, the processor executing a skip filtering action when the position code matches the start indicator of the multimedia content navigation object, the skip filtering action causing the processor to discontinue decoding the multimedia content between the start indicator and the end indicator, and to immediately resume decoding and delivering the multimedia content after the end indicator.

2. The computing system of claim 1 wherein the start indicator includes a first hour designation, a first minute designation, and a first seconds designation.

3. The computing system of claim 2 wherein the end indicator includes a second hour designation, a second minute designation, and a second seconds designation.

4. The computing system of claim 3 wherein the start indicator further includes a first frame designation and the end indicator further includes a second frame designation.

5. The computing system of claim 1 wherein the end indicator includes a frame count from the start indicator.

6. The computing system of claim 1 wherein the filtering action includes at least one of a mute filtering action, a reframe filtering action, and a fade filtering action.

7. The computing system of claim 1 further comprising a multimedia content presentation identifier for the multimedia content navigation object.

8. The computing system claim 1 further comprising a configuration identifier.

9. The computing system of claim 1 further comprising a DVD player including the first computer readable media with the computer executable instructions for the start indicator, the end indicator, the at least one content descriptor, and the filtering action.

10. The computing system of claim 1 wherein the start indicator corresponds with a physical position of a removable memory media including the multimedia content presentation.

11. The computing system of claim 10 wherein the end indicator corresponds with a second physical location of the removable memory media including the multimedia content presentation.

12. The computing system of claim 10 wherein the removable memory media is a DVD.

13. The computing system of claim 1 wherein the multimedia content presentation is obtained from at least one of a DVD, a CD, a random access memory, a hard drive, a removable disk storage medium, a wired communications link, and a wireless communications link.

14. The computing system of claim 1 further comprising an object store including a plurality of multimedia content navigation objects.

15. A computing system comprising:

a first computer readable media including computer executable instructions comprising;

a multimedia content navigation object comprising;

a start indicator associated with a first position in a multimedia content presentation;

an end indicator associated with a second position in a multimedia content presentation;

at least one filtering action associated with the start indicator and the end indicator, the at least one filtering action including a skip filtering action;

a content presentation identifier that associates the content navigation object with the multimedia content presentation; and

at least one processor in communication with the first computer readable media and configured to decode and deliver the multimedia content to a display, the at least one processor further configured to monitor a position code of the multimedia content during decoding, the processor executing a skip filtering action when the position code matches the start indicator of the multimedia content navigation object, the skip filtering action causing the processor to discontinue decoding the multimedia content between the start indicator and the end indicator, and to immediately resume decoding and delivering the multimedia content after the end indicator.

16. The computing system of claim 15 wherein the at least one content presentation identifier includes a DVD movie title.

17. The computing system of claim 15 further comprising:

at least one content descriptor identifying a type of multimedia content associated with the multimedia content presentation between the first position and the second position.

18. The computing system of claim 15 wherein the start indicator includes an hour designation, a minute designation, and a second designation.

19. The computing system of claim 15 wherein the end indicator includes an hour designation, a minute designation, and a second designation.

20. The computing system of claim 15 wherein the end indicator includes a frame count from the start indicator.

21. The computing system of claim 15 wherein the filtering action includes at least one of a mute filtering action, a reframe filtering action, and a fade filtering action.

22. The computing system of claim 15 wherein the multimedia content presentation is obtained from at least one of a DVD, a CD, a random access memory, a hard drive, a removable disk storage medium, a wired communications link, and a wireless communications link.

23. The computing system of claim 15 wherein the multimedia content navigation object further comprises a configuration identifier.

24. The computing system of claim 15 wherein the first computer readable media is an optical storage media with the computer readable instructions for the start indicator, the end indicator, the at least one content descriptor, and the content presentation identifier.

25. The computing system of claim 15 further comprising a DVD player including the first computer readable media with the computer executable instructions for the start indicator, the end indicator, the filtering action, and the content presentation identifier.

26. The computing system of claim 15 wherein the start indicator corresponds with a physical position of a removable memory media including the multimedia content presentation.

27. The computing system of claim 26 wherein the end indicator corresponds with a second physical location of the removable memory media including the multimedia content presentation.

28. The computing system of claim 27 wherein the removable memory media is a DVD.

29. The computing system of claim 15 further comprising an object store including a plurality of navigation objects.