Method and system for rule-based content filtering
First Claim
1. A system for filtering content of multimedia data containers, comprising:
- a network interface for receiving said multimedia data containers from a network; and
a plurality of server units, each server unit comprising a set of processors and a set of memory devices, having installed thereon;
a filter-definition module, having computer readable instructions stored in a computer readable storage medium, for acquisition of definitions of a set of filters from a user, each filter specifying a definition of a content descriptor, a descriptor criterion, and an operator;
a rule-construction module, having computer readable instructions stored in a computer readable storage medium, for acquisition of a set of content-filtering rules from said user, each rule specifying a Boolean expression of a subset of said filters and a filtering action;
a module for characterizing content of each component of a multimedia data container, determining said content descriptor, applying said operator, and determining a state of said each filter;
a module for determining a binary output of each said rule; and
a module for performing a filtering action relevant to said content subject to a preset value of said binary output.
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Abstract
A system and method for content-filtering of data containers in a network supporting versatile communications services are disclosed. The content-filtering system is integrated with a content-adaptation system. Several server units handle data containers formulated at source according to different protocols. A content filtering process relies on characterizing each component of a container to produce a set of content descriptors and producing a set of binary conditions for each component according to a preset criterion for each descriptor. A set of rules is devised where each rule applies a respective Boolean expression to a subset of the conditions to prescribe a respective content-editing action. Methods of specifying and evaluating a rule'"'"'s Boolean expression are disclosed. A formal graph is used to define inter-dependence of rules.
53 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A system for filtering content of multimedia data containers, comprising:
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a network interface for receiving said multimedia data containers from a network; and a plurality of server units, each server unit comprising a set of processors and a set of memory devices, having installed thereon; a filter-definition module, having computer readable instructions stored in a computer readable storage medium, for acquisition of definitions of a set of filters from a user, each filter specifying a definition of a content descriptor, a descriptor criterion, and an operator; a rule-construction module, having computer readable instructions stored in a computer readable storage medium, for acquisition of a set of content-filtering rules from said user, each rule specifying a Boolean expression of a subset of said filters and a filtering action; a module for characterizing content of each component of a multimedia data container, determining said content descriptor, applying said operator, and determining a state of said each filter; a module for determining a binary output of each said rule; and a module for performing a filtering action relevant to said content subject to a preset value of said binary output. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A method of filtering content of a data container, comprising:
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specifying a set of binary conditions characterizing said content; specifying a set of operators, with one operator designated a null successor and each other operator designated a successor from said set of operators; forming a leaf vector comprising N>
1 leaf records, each leaf record having a leaf operator from among said set of operators and a respective subset of said binary conditions;forming a node vector of N node records, each having a node-operator field and a node-state field; applying each leaf operator to respective binary conditions, placing result in node-state field of a node record; placing a successor of said each leaf operator in node-operator field of said node record; and recursively performing steps of; replacing identified node records having a common operator with a combined record having a successor of said common operator; and applying said common operator to entries of node-state field of said identified node records, placing resulting state in node-state field of said combined record. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A method of filtering content of a data container, comprising:
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defining a set of binary conditions where each binary condition is a function of a selected descriptor of said content and a respective criterion of said descriptor; defining a set of Boolean expressions and corresponding content-filtering actions; selecting a Boolean expression of specified μ
binary conditions represented as a string of μ
bits, μ
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1;evaluating said Boolean expression for each of 2μ
values of said string to produce a rule vector of 2μ
entries, each entry being a state of a content metric corresponding to one of the 2μ
values of said string;receiving a data container; determining values of said specified μ
binary conditions according to content of said data container;determining entry in said rule vector corresponding to an index determined by said specified μ
binary conditions; andexecuting a content-filtering action according to a value of said entry. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20)
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Specification