Parental control of displayed content using closed captioning

• US 8,185,921 B2
• Filed: 02/28/2006
• Issued: 05/22/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Candelore, Brant L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hirl, Joseph P
• Assistant Examiner(s): KAY, MARY ANNE
• Application Number:
  US11/363,716
• Publication Number:
  US 20070204288A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,275 Days
• Field of Search: 725/14, 725/25, 725/28, 725/32, 725/34, 725/35, 725/135, 725/136, 725/137, 348/589
• US Class Current: 725/20
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/426 Internal components of the client ; Characteristics thereof H04N5/44 takes precedence
• 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 21/454 Content or additional data filtering, e.g. blocking advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4542 Blocking scenes or portions of the received content, e.g. censoring scenes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4884 for displaying subtitles
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8133 specifically related to the content, e.g. biography of the actors in a movie, detailed information about an article seen in a video program
• 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 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/163 by receiver means only

Abstract

According to one embodiment, a method for blocking scenes with objectionable content comprises receiving incoming content, namely a scene of a program. Thereafter, using closed captioning information, a determination is made if the scene of the program includes objectionable content, and if so, blocking the scene from being displayed.

Claims

1. A method for implementing parental control on a scene-by-scene basis on a digital device comprising:

receiving incoming digital content from a digital data stream intended as a scene of a program;

decoding the scene during playback, decoding the scene of the program includes determining on a scene-by-scene basis if the scene of the program includes objectionable content based on closed captioning information included with the content; and

blocking a display of the scene of the program if, during the decoding, the scene of the program is determined to include objectionable content based on analysis of the closed captioning information,

wherein the analysis of the closed captioning information includes obtaining hints that the scene of the program includes objectionable content, the hints being descriptions of noises suggesting sexual or violent situations in the scene of the program,

wherein the analysis of the closed captioning information includes comparing the closed captioning information with prior established parental control limits, the prior established parental control limits including at least one of an Age-based parental control limit and a parental control parameter tag,

wherein comparing the closed captioning information includes

determining whether the closed captioning information includes an Age-based rating assigned to the scene of the program,

in response to the closed captioning information including the Age-based rating assigned to the scene of the program, determining whether the Age-based rating assigned to the scene of the program exceeds the Age-based parental control limit,

in response to the closed captioning information not including the Age-based rating assigned to the scene of the program, determining whether the closed captioning information includes a tag information assigned to the scene of the program, the tag information identifying at least one of a plurality of categories of objectionable content present in the scene of the program and at least one of a plurality of sub-categories of objectionable content present in the scene of the program, and

in response to the closed captioning information including the tag information assigned to the scene of the program, determining whether the tag information assigned to the scene of the program corresponds to the parental control parameter tag.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the scene of the program is fifteen frames of video for display.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the scene of the program includes at least one frame of video for display.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the blocking of the display of the scene includes blocking at least a portion of the scene from being displayed if the Age-based rating of the scene associated with the content exceeds the Age-based parental control limit.

5. The method of claim 1,

wherein the blocking a display of the scene of the program includes blocking at least a portion of the content from being displayed if the tag information assigned to the scene of the program corresponds to the parental control parameter tag.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein prior to blocking the display of the scene of the program, the method further comprises storing markers to denote at least portions of the content to be blocked during playback from a storage device adapted to store the incoming content, the markers being placed within the data stream during storage of the incoming content.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the content is a commercial of the program to be televised.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the scene of the program is one frame of video for display.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the closed captioning information is used to provide hints that an upcoming scene includes objectionable content.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the hints are descriptions of noises or spoken dialogue suggesting sexual or violent situations in the upcoming scene.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein

the plurality of categories of objectionable content includes violence, offensive language, and sexual content, and

the plurality of sub-categories associated with the violence category of objectionable content includes blood, gore, sexual assault, and disturbing images.

12. A digital device comprising:

a tuner/demodulation unit adapted to receive incoming digital content from a digital data stream including a scene of a program; and

a data processing unit coupled to the tuner/demodulation unit, the data processing unit to (i) decode the scene of the program during playback, decoding the scene includes determining on a scene-by-scene basis if the scene of the program includes objectionable content that exceeds a preset rating, and (ii) block the scene of the program from being displayed if, during the decoding at (i), the content is determined to include objectionable content that exceeds the preset rating, wherein the data processing unit determines if the scene of the program includes objectionable content by analyzing closed captioning information included with the incoming content to obtain hints that the scene of the program includes objectionable content, the hints being descriptions of noises suggesting sexual or violent situations in the scene of the program,

wherein analyzing of the closed captioning information includes comparing the closed captioning information with the preset rating, the preset rating including at least one of an Age-based parental control limit and a parental control parameter tag,

wherein comparing the closed captioning information includes

determining whether the closed captioning information includes an Age-based rating assigned to the scene of the program,

in response to the closed captioning information including the Age-based rating assigned to the scene of the program, determining whether the Age-based rating assigned to the scene of the program exceeds the Age-based parental control limit,

in response to the closed captioning information not including the Age-based rating assigned to the scene of the program, determining whether the closed captioning information includes a tag information assigned to the scene of the program, the tag information identifying at least one of a plurality of categories of objectionable content present in the scene of the program and at least one of a plurality of sub-categories of objectionable content present in the scene of the program, and

in response to the closed captioning information including the tag information assigned to the scene of the program, determining whether the tag information assigned to the scene of the program corresponds to the parental control parameter tag.

13. The digital device of claim 12, wherein the scene of the program ranges between one and thirty frames of video for display and the preset rating is a parental control limit preset to indicate what subject matter for the content is acceptable for a viewing audience.

14. The digital device of claim 12, wherein the data processing unit includes a processor and a decoder coupled to the processor, the decoder to determine if the scene of the program includes objectionable content.

15. The digital device of claim 12, wherein, when the Age-based rating assigned to the scene of the program exceeds the Age-based parental control limit, the data processing unit to block the scene from being displayed.

16. The digital device of claim 12, wherein the data processing unit blocking the scene from being displayed if the tag information associated with the content corresponds to the parent control parameter tag to indicate that the content includes objectionable content.

17. The digital device of claim 12, wherein the data processing unit is adapted to store markers within the content that identify a location of the objectionable content within the content, the markers to denote at least portions of the content to be blocked during playback from a storage device adapted to store the incoming content and in communication with the data processing unit, the markers being placed within the data stream during storage of the incoming content.

18. The digital device of claim 12, wherein the scene of the program is one frame of video for display.

19. The digital device of claim 12, wherein the closed captioning information is used to provide hints that an upcoming scene includes objectionable content.

20. The digital device of claim 19, wherein the hints are descriptions of noises or spoken dialogue suggesting sexual or violent situations in the upcoming scene.

21. The digital device of claim 12, wherein

the plurality of categories of objectionable content includes violence, offensive language, and sexual content, and

the plurality of sub-categories associated with the violence category of objectionable content includes blood, gore, sexual assault, and disturbing images.

22. A non-transitory machine readable medium to tangibly store thereon software that, if executed by logic, will cause a digital device to perform the following operations:

software code to decode a scene of a program during playback, decoding the scene of the program includes determining on a scene-by-scene basis if the scene of the program includes objectionable content, the scene of the program being a portion of a first stream of digital content received by the digital device from a digital data stream from an external source,

wherein determining if the scene of the program includes objectionable content includes analyzing closed captioning information included with the scene of the program to obtain hints that the scene of the program includes objectionable content, the hints being descriptions of noises or spoken dialogue suggesting sexual or violent situations in the scene of the program; and

wherein analyzing of the closed captioning information includes comparing the closed captioning information with a preset parental control limit, the preset parental control limit including at least one of an Age-based parental control limit and a parental control parameter tag,

wherein comparing the closed captioning information includes

determining whether the closed captioning information includes an Age-based rating assigned to the scene of the program,

in response to the closed captioning information including the Age-based rating assigned to the scene of the program, determining whether the Age-based rating assigned to the scene of the program exceeds the Age-based parental control limit,

in response to the closed captioning information not including the Age-based rating assigned to the scene of the program, determining whether the closed captioning information includes a tag information assigned to the scene of the program, the tag information identifying at least one of a plurality of categories of objectionable content present in the scene of the program and at least one of a plurality of sub-categories of objectionable content present in the scene of the program, and

in response to the closed captioning information including the tag information assigned to the scene of the program, determining whether the tag information assigned to the scene of the program corresponds to the parental control parameter tag; and

software code to block a portion of the scene of the program from being displayed if, during the decoding, the Age-based rating assigned to the scene of the program exceeds the Age-based parental control limit or if, during the decoding, the tag information assigned to the scene of the program corresponds to the parental control parameter tag.

23. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 22, wherein the scene of the program is one frame of video for display.

24. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 22, wherein the closed captioning information is used to provide hints that an upcoming scene includes objectionable content.

25. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 24, wherein the hints are descriptions of noises or spoken dialogue suggesting sexual or violent situations in the upcoming scene.

26. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 22,

wherein the plurality of categories of objectionable content includes violence, offensive language, and sexual content, and

the plurality of sub-categories associated with the violence category of objectionable content includes blood, gore, sexual assault, and disturbing images.