System and method for monitoring blocked content

• US 7,818,764 B2
• Filed: 06/20/2002
• Issued: 10/19/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/20/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Bellsouth Intellectual Property Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Matz, William R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Pendleton, Brian T
• Assistant Examiner(s): LEWIS, JONATHAN V
• Application Number:
  US10/176,939
• Publication Number:
  US 20040261096A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,043 Days
• Field of Search: 725/34, 725/35, 725/46, 725/47, 386/125
• US Class Current: 725/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26603 for automatically generating descriptors from content, e.g. when it is not made available by its provider, using content analysis techniques
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44016 involving splicing one content stream with another content stream, e.g. for substituting a video clip
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44224 Monitoring of user activity on external systems, e.g. Internet browsing
• 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 21/4882 for displaying messages, e.g. warnings, reminders arrangements for providing short real-time information to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1895
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• 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 7/163 by receiver means only

Abstract

A method for monitoring termination of blocked content. After unwanted content is blocked using substitution, user channel selection, or otherwise, a number of methods are available for monitoring blocked content and choosing content for presentation after the blocked content ends. Default content may be automatically presented. Default content includes content that was being presented prior to blocking, or any user selected default content. The user may opt to continue viewing substitute content. A termination notification may be generated, whereby the user the notified that blocked content is terminated, or will terminate imminently. One type of termination notification includes a prompt enabling the user to select among possible content to switch to.

Claims

1. A method of presenting content, comprising:

receiving tagged content;

comparing, by a processor, the tagged content to a user'"'"'s profile stored in memory;

retrieving multiple fields of a preferred tag from the memory, the preferred tag associated with content that is preferred by the user'"'"'s profile;

retrieving the multiple fields of a corresponding alternative tag that are associated with alternative content;

setting an initial value of a score to zero;

successively comparing each field of the preferred tag to each corresponding field of the alternative tag;

incrementing the score when a field of the preferred tag matches a corresponding field of the alternative tag;

comparing a final value of the score to a threshold value when all the multiple fields of the preferred tag have been compared to all the multiple fields of the corresponding alternative tag;

when the processor determines that the alternate content matches the user'"'"'s profile, then causing display of a user interface in which a user may designate a source of substitute content;

receiving a selection of a control button in the user interface that selects a blank screen with audio as the substitute content;

causing display of a preview control button in the user interface for previewing the substitute content;

receiving an input that selects the preview control button;

retrieving an audio file;

causing display of the blank screen and cause a presentation of the audio file in a preview area of the graphical user interface;

blocking the tagged content having a time duration;

determining an end of the time duration;

causing display of the blank screen and presenting the audio file to replace the blocked content; and

presenting desired content after the blocked content has terminated.

2. The method as defined in claim 1 further comprising generating a termination notification that the blocked tagged content has terminated.

3. The method as defined in claim 2 wherein the termination notification comprises an audible sound.

4. The method as defined in claim 2 wherein the termination notification comprises a graphical list of content options.

5. The method as defined in claim 1, further comprising negating a flag when the multiple fields of the alternative tag fails to match the multiple fields of the preferred tag.

6. The method as defined in claim 5, further comprising displaying a message to indicate that no alternative content is available to replace the blocked tagged content.

7. The method as defined in claim 1, further comprising asserting a flag when the multiple fields of the alternative tag match the multiple fields of the preferred tag.

8. The method as defined in claim 1, further comprising identifying an alternate content item that has a duration that substantially matches the time duration of the blocked tagged content.

9. The method as defined in claim 2 wherein generating the termination notification occurs a predetermined time duration prior to the termination of the blocked tagged content.

10. The method as defined in claim 9 wherein the predetermined time duration is user selectable.

11. The method as defined in claim 1, further comprising downloading the user'"'"'s profile from a website that provides pre-generated user profiles.

12. The method as defined in claim 2, further comprising repeating generation of the termination notification.

13. The method as defined in claim 12 wherein repeating occurs substantially periodically according to a predetermined frequency.

14. The method as defined in claim 13 wherein the predetermined frequency is user selectable.

15. The method as defined in claim 2, wherein the termination notification includes a visual display of a time until termination of the blocked tagged content.

16. The method as defined in claim 15 wherein the visual display of the time is updated periodically.

17. The method as defined in claim 16 wherein the termination notification further includes a user selectable menu of content enabling a user to select content to return to after termination of the blocked content.

18. A client system for presenting media content, comprising:

a processor communicating with memory storing code causing the processor to;

receive tagged content;

compare the tagged content to a user profile;

retrieve multiple fields of a preferred tag from the memory, the preferred tag associated with content that is preferred by the user'"'"'s profile;

retrieve the multiple fields of a corresponding alternative tag that are associated with alternative content;

set an initial value of a score to zero;

successively compare each field of the preferred tag to each corresponding field of the alternative tag;

increment the score when a field of the preferred tag matches a corresponding field of the alternative tag;

compare a final value of the score to a threshold value when all the multiple fields of the preferred tag have been compared to all the multiple fields of the corresponding alternative tag;

determine that the alternate content correlates to the user profile;

cause display of a user interface in which a user may designate a source of substitute content;

receive a selection of a control button in the user interface that selects a blank screen with audio as the substitute content;

cause display of a preview control button in the user interface for previewing the substitute content;

receive an input that selects the preview control button;

retrieve an audio file;

cause display of the blank screen and cause a presentation of the audio file in a preview area of the graphical user interface;

block the tagged content having a time duration;

determine an end of the time duration;

cause display of the blank screen and present the audio file to replace the blocked content; and

present desired content after the blocked content has terminated.

19. The client system as defined in claim 18, further comprising code for causing presentation of a termination notification in response to receiving a termination signal.

20. The client system as defined in claim 19 wherein the termination notification comprises a visual display element.

21. The client system as defined in claim 20, further comprising code for prompting to select a predetermined area in the visual display element to initiate a switch to the alternative content after the blocked content terminates, the visual display element also comprising a selectable content indicator enabling a user to select content to be presented after termination of the blocked content.

22. The client system as defined in claim 20 wherein the visual display element comprises a time value indicating a time until termination of the blocked content.

23. The client system as defined in claim 19, further comprising code for switching to other content upon termination of the blocked content.

24. The client system as defined in claim 23 wherein the other content comprises at least one of default content and user-selected content.

25. The client system as defined in claim 19 wherein the termination notification comprises an audible sound.

26. The client system as defined in claim 25, further comprising code for repeating the audible sound until a user input entry is detected or the blocked content terminates.

27. The client system as defined in claim 18, further comprising code for:

receiving an external insertion event;

inserting the tagged content into a stream of content items being sent to a blocking module; and

transmitting an insert command and the tagged content to the blocking module for presentation.

28. The client system as defined in claim 18, further comprising code for downloading the user profile from a website that provides pre-generated user profiles.

29. The client system as defined in claim 27, further comprising code for reordering the list of available content according to a weighting value associated with each tag.

30. The client system as defined in claim 29, when the tagged content is blocked, further comprising code for predicting substitute content according to the weight values of the tag.

31. The client system as defined in claim 30, further comprising

code for receiving one or more user selections identifying one or more tags to be blocked;

and

code for transmitting the one or more tags associated with the user selection to a profile generator.

32. The client system as defined in claim 31 wherein the user selections identify predetermined user profile data for storage in the user profile.

33. The client system as defined in claim 32, further comprising code for downloading the predetermined user profile data.

34. The client system as defined in claim 33 wherein the user selections correspond to a code uniquely identifying a set of tags to be stored in the user profile.

35. The client system as defined in claim 34, further comprising code for causing presentation of a menu of tags to a user and for receiving the user selections via the menu of tags.

36. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing processor executable instructions for performing a method, the method comprising:

receiving tagged content;

comparing the tagged content to a user profile;

when the tagged content matches the user profile, then blocking the tagged content;

retrieving multiple fields of a preferred tag associated with content that is preferred by the user'"'"'s profile;

retrieving the multiple fields of a corresponding alternative tag that are associated with alternative content;

setting an initial value of a score to zero;

successively comparing each field of the preferred tag to each corresponding field of the alternative tag;

incrementing the score when a field of the preferred tag matches a corresponding field of the alternative tag;

comparing a final value of the score to a threshold value when all the multiple fields of the preferred tag have been compared to all the multiple fields of the corresponding alternative tag;

substituting the blocked tagged content with the alternative content when the final value of the score satisfies the threshold value.

37. The non-transitory computer readable medium as defined in claim 36, further comprising instructions for determining that the alternative content fails to correlate with the user profile when the final value of the score does not satisfy the threshold value.

38. The non-transitory computer readable medium as defined in claim 37, further comprising instructions for declining to substitute the alternative content for the blocked tagged content when the final value of the score does not satisfy the threshold value.