Method and apparatus for concealing portions of a video screen

• US 8,493,510 B2
• Filed: 12/12/2006
• Issued: 07/23/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/12/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Time Warner Inc. (Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Time Warner Inc. (Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc.)
• Inventors: Bryan, David Alan, So, Nicol
• Primary Examiner(s): Natnael, Paulos M
• Application Number:
  US11/637,310
• Publication Number:
  US 20080138030A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,415 Days
• Field of Search: 348/564, 348/553, 348/552, 348/725, 725/25, 725/32, 725/34, 386/249, 386/248, 386/239
• US Class Current: 348/564
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42204 User interfaces specially adapted for controlling a client device through a remote control device; Remote control devices therefor constructive details of casings for the remote control device H01H9/0235; user interfaces for controlling a tuning device of a television receiver through a remote control H03J9/00; remote control of peripheral devices connected to a television receiver through the remote control device of the television receiver H04B1/205
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4221 Dedicated function buttons, e.g. for the control of an EPG, subtitles, aspect ratio, picture-in-picture or teletext
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4316 for displaying supplemental content in a region of the screen, e.g. an advertisement in a separate window
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44008 involving operations for analysing video streams, e.g. detecting features or characteristics in the video stream arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of video in broadcast systems H04H60/59
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4542 Blocking scenes or portions of the received content, e.g. censoring scenes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/272 Means for inserting a foreground image in a background image, i.e. inlay, outlay
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/445 for displaying additional information H04N5/50 takes precedence

Abstract

A simple, cost-effective, and robust method and system to obstruct crawls, logos, and other annoying and distracting images overlaid on a video signal and displayed on a TV set or monitor is provided. The method and system may detect the presence of the unwanted images and block them automatically, or they may accept manual input from the user via a handheld control device to block or obstruct these images.

Claims

1. A system for modifying video images, said system comprising:

a processing apparatus for displaying a video signal as a received image on a screen, said image including a first portion including undesirable content; and

a control device in communication with said processing apparatus;

a blocking element including a detector for detecting said first portion and an image generator generating an obstructing image;

wherein said processing apparatus, said blocking element and said control device cooperate to replace said first portion of said received image on the screen with said obstructing image to obstruct said undesirable content in said received image;

wherein said obstructing image is a dynamic image that changes in accordance with a parameter associated with said received image.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein said first portion is obstructed with a preselected image.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein said first portion includes alphanumeric characters.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein said obstructing image is a static image.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein said first portion is one of a text and a logo.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein said first portion includes a scrolling text.