System, method, and computer program product for selective replacement of objectionable program content with less-objectionable content
First Claim
1. An apparatus for selectively replacing objectionable content in a video program intended for viewing on a display screen comprising a first video signal with less-objectionable content, comprising:
- an extraction device receiving at least a portion of the first video signal and configured to extract information therefrom;
a replacement control device;
a processor operatively coupled to said replacement control device and communicatively coupled to said extraction device for receiving at least a portion of said extracted information therefrom;
a memory coupled to said processor and storing a replacement criterion;
said processor programmed to identify replacement information in said extracted information;
a replacement video signal including said less-objectionable content communicatively coupled to said replacement control device; and
said processor programmed to cause said replacement control device to replace a portion of the first video signal with said replacement video signal in response to identifying replacement information that satisfies said replacement criterion, wherein said less-objectionable content comprises advertising and wherein the advertising only replaces specified subregions of displayed video frames corresponding to the location of the objectionable content within the displayed video frames.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system, method, and computer program product is provided for the selective replacement of objectionable content in a program with less-objectionable material. The selective replacement of objectionable content in a program with less-objectionable material is accomplished by applying an encoding process and a decoding process to the audio and/or video signal of the program. The encoding process includes marking potentially objectionable material in the program with replacement information that identifies the type (e.g., audio, violent content, sexual content, etc.) and intensity level (e.g., mild, graphic, extreme, etc.) of the potentially objectionable material using replacement codes. The decoding process includes comparing, during the presentation of the program to the user and prior to outputting the audio or displaying the video, the replacement information to a replacement criterion, which includes user supplied replacement settings, to determine whether replacement of the potentially objectionable content (i.e., audio and/or video) should be performed. If replacement is to be performed, the objectionable content in the program is replaced according to the replacement information which, in the preferred embodiment, identifies the start and duration of the replacement and, for replacement of the video of the program, also identifies the display area of the video to be replaced.
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Citations
31 Claims
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1. An apparatus for selectively replacing objectionable content in a video program intended for viewing on a display screen comprising a first video signal with less-objectionable content, comprising:
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an extraction device receiving at least a portion of the first video signal and configured to extract information therefrom; a replacement control device; a processor operatively coupled to said replacement control device and communicatively coupled to said extraction device for receiving at least a portion of said extracted information therefrom; a memory coupled to said processor and storing a replacement criterion; said processor programmed to identify replacement information in said extracted information; a replacement video signal including said less-objectionable content communicatively coupled to said replacement control device; and said processor programmed to cause said replacement control device to replace a portion of the first video signal with said replacement video signal in response to identifying replacement information that satisfies said replacement criterion, wherein said less-objectionable content comprises advertising and wherein the advertising only replaces specified subregions of displayed video frames corresponding to the location of the objectionable content within the displayed video frames. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A method of selectively replacing objectionable content in a first video signal intended for viewing on a display screen with less-objectionable content, said method comprising the steps of:
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storing a replacement criterion in a memory; receiving said less-objectionable content as a replacement video signal; receiving the first video signal; extracting replacement information from the first video signal; determining whether the extracted replacement information satisfies said replacement criterion; and replacing a portion of the first video signal with the replacement video signal in response to determining that said extracted replacement information satisfies said replacement criterion, wherein said less-objectionable content comprises advertising and wherein the advertising only replaces specified subregions of displayed video frames corresponding to the location of the objectionable content within the displayed video frames. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. A method for selectively replacing objectionable content from a signal having both audio and video signal components intended for presentation on a display screen, said method comprising:
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storing replacement criteria in a memory identifying disallowed video content; receiving the signal; extracting information from said signal identifying objectionable content in said signal; determining whether said extracted information satisfies said replacement criteria; and modifying the video signal component with replacement video data in response to determining that said extracted information satisfies said replacement criteria so that only specified subregions of displayed video frames corresponding to disallowed video content are replaced with advertising. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
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29. A device for selectively filtering objectionable content from a video program intended for viewing on a display screen comprising a video signal component, said device comprising:
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an extraction device receiving all or part of said video signal component and configured to extract filter codes therefrom identifying potentially objectionable content in said video program; a video control device; a processor operatively coupled to said video control device and communicatively coupled to said extraction device for receiving extracted filter codes; a memory coupled to said processor and storing criteria defining disallowed video content; and said processor programmed to cause said video control device to selectively obscure only subregions of displayed video frames corresponding to disallowed video content with advertising when extracted filter codes match said criteria. - View Dependent Claims (30, 31)
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Specification