Mobile communication terminal and method of restricting harmful information thereof

• US 8,856,820 B2
• Filed: 01/18/2007
• Issued: 10/07/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/01/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Chung, Min-hyung, Eom, Myung-jin, Lee, Seung-ho
• Primary Examiner(s): SALCE, JASON P
• Application Number:
  US11/654,531
• Publication Number:
  US 20070256092A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,819 Days
• Field of Search: 725 25- 31, 455/26.1, 455/515
• US Class Current: 725/28
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41407 embedded in a portable device, e.g. video client on a mobile phone, PDA, laptop constructional details of equipment or arrangements specially adapted for portable computer application G06F1/1626; arrangements specially adapted for mobile receivers in broadcast systems H04H20/57
• 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 21/4755 for defining user preferences, e.g. favourite actors or genre retrieval personalisation and generation of user profiles for the retrieval of video data G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306
• 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 mobile communication terminal and a method of restricting harmful information thereof are provided. The mobile communication terminal includes a data judgment module which judges whether to restrict digital content by comparing content information included in a packet of the digital content with viewing restriction information; and a control unit which controls whether to display the digital content in accordance with a result of the judgment of the data judgment module. The method includes receiving digital content that is transmitted in a unit of a packet; judging whether viewing of the digital content is permitted by comparing content information included in the packet with viewing restriction information; and preventing a display of the digital content if it is judged that the viewing of the digital content is not permitted.

Claims

1. A mobile communication terminal comprising:

a data judgment module which judges whether to restrict digital content by comparing content information included in a packet of the digital content with viewing restriction information; and

a control unit which controls whether to display the digital content in accordance with a result of the judgment of the data judgment module,

a packet generation unit which generates a response packet to be transmitted to the provider of the digital content; and

a packet transmission unit which transmits the generated response packet to the provider by using information about the provider included in the packet received through the receiving unit;

wherein the data judgment module comprises an information storage unit which stores the viewing restriction information and the viewing restriction information can be changed exclusively by resetting the information storage unit, thereby a user or a user'"'"'s protector cannot directly change the viewing restriction information, but the viewing restriction information can be changed exclusively by resetting the information storage unit by an after-sales service center or an agency,

wherein if the viewing of the digital content is not permitted and the corresponding digital content is fee-based content, the control unit controls the packet generation unit and the packet transmission unit to generate and transmit a response packet to the provider of the corresponding digital content to refuse the downloading of the corresponding digital content.

2. The mobile communication terminal of claim 1, wherein the viewing restriction information is a standard of judgment of whether it is permitted for a user to view the digital content.

3. The mobile communication terminal of claim 1, wherein the data judgment module further comprises:

a viewing judgment unit which judges whether it is permitted for a user to view the digital content by comparing the content information included in the packet with the viewing restriction information and providing the result of the judgment to the control unit.

4. The mobile communication terminal of claim 3, wherein the content information includes at least one of viewing grade information according to an age of a viewer of the digital content, a title, a genre, a speech, a provider, a performer, and a providing channel.

5. The mobile communication terminal of claim 3, wherein the viewing restriction information includes at least one of a user'"'"'s age, an age group, viewing grade information, a word set by the user, a title, a genre, a speech, a provider, a performer, and a providing channel.

6. The mobile communication terminal of claim 1, further comprising:

a receiving unit which receives the packet of the digital content; and

a data processing module which processes the packet received through the receiving unit to provide the packet in a displayable state.

7. The mobile communication terminal of claim 6, wherein if it is judged by the viewing judgment unit that the viewing of the digital content is not permitted, the control unit intercepts a transfer of the packet from the receiving unit to the data processing module.

8. The mobile communication terminal of claim 6, wherein if it is judged by the viewing judgment unit that the viewing of the digital content is not permitted, the control unit controls the data processing module to scramble the packet.

9. The mobile communication terminal of claim 6, wherein if it is judged by the viewing judgment unit that the viewing of the digital content is not permitted, the control unit controls the data processing module not to decompress the packet.

10. The mobile communication terminal of claim 3, wherein the viewing judgment unit comprises:

a parsing part which parses a region of the packet where the content information is stored;

an information extraction part which extracts the content information by decoding the parsed packet region; and

a judgment part which reads the viewing restriction information from the information storage unit and judges whether the viewing of the digital content is permitted by comparing the content information with the viewing restriction information.

11. The mobile communication terminal of claim 3, wherein the information storage unit is a built-in memory that includes at least one of a flash memory and a random access memory (RAM).

12. The mobile communication terminal of claim 3, wherein the information storage unit is a detachable external memory.

13. The mobile communication terminal of claim 3, wherein the information storage unit is a subscriber identification module (SIM) card.

14. The mobile communication terminal of claim 3, further comprising a multi-card reader which reads information stored in the memory card and provides the read information to the viewing judgment unit;

wherein the information storage unit is at least one of a secure digital card, a multimedia card (MMC), a memory stick, a compact flash card, a smart media card and a micro drive card.

15. The mobile communication terminal of claim 3, wherein the viewing restriction information stored in the information storage unit can be changed only by a predetermined person.

16. The mobile communication terminal of claim 1, wherein the digital content is at least one of a voice, a text, an image, a moving image and broadcasting information.

17. A method of restricting digital content for a mobile communication terminal, the method comprising:

receiving digital content that is transmitted in a unit of a packet;

judging whether viewing of the digital content is permitted by comparing content information included in the packet with viewing restriction information; and

preventing a display of the digital content if it is judged that the viewing of the digital content is not permitted,

generating a response packet to be transmitted to the provider of the digital content; and

transmitting the generated response packet to the provider of the digital content,

wherein the viewing restriction information can be changed exclusively by resetting a memory including the viewing restriction information, thereby a user or a user'"'"'s protector cannot directly change the viewing restriction information, but the viewing restriction information can be changed exclusively by resetting the information storage unit by an after-sales service center or an agency,

wherein if the viewing of the digital content is not permitted and the corresponding digital content is fee-based content, the generating and the transmitting comprise generating and transmitting a response packet to the provider of the corresponding digital content to refuse the downloading of the corresponding digital content.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the viewing restriction information is a standard of whether it is permitted for a user to view the digital content.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the content information includes at least one of viewing grade information according to an age of a viewer of the digital content, a title, a genre, a speech, a provider, a performer, and a providing channel.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the viewing restriction information includes at least one of a user'"'"'s age, an age group, viewing grade information, a word set by the user, a title, a genre, a speech, a provider, a performer, and a providing channel.

21. The method of claim 17, wherein the preventing the display comprises intercepting a packet from being processed to be in a displayable state.

22. The method of claim 17, wherein the preventing the display comprises scrambling the packet.

23. The method of claim 17, wherein the preventing the display comprises not decompressing the packet.

24. The method of claim 17, wherein the judging whether the viewing of the digital content is permitted comprises:

parsing a region of the packet where the content information is stored;

extracting the content information by decoding the parsed packet region; and

judging whether the viewing of the digital content is permitted by comparing the content information with the viewing restriction information.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the viewing restriction information is stored in a built-in memory that includes at least one of a flash memory and a random access memory (RAM).

26. The method of claim 24, wherein the viewing restriction information is stored in a detachable external memory.

27. The method of claim 24, wherein the viewing restriction information is stored in a subscriber identification module (SIM) card.

28. The method of claim 24, further comprising reading viewing restriction information.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the viewing restriction information is read from a memory card, wherein the memory card is at least one of a secure digital card that is a memory card, a multimedia card, a memory stick, a compact flash card, a smart media card, and a micro drive card.

30. The method of claim 24, wherein the viewing restriction information can be changed only by a predetermined person.

31. A mobile communication terminal comprising:

a data judgment module which judges whether to restrict a broadcasting stream by comparing broadcasting content information included in the broadcasting stream with viewing restriction information; and

a control unit which controls whether to display the broadcasting stream in accordance with a result of the judgment from the data judgment module,

a message generation unit which generates a response message to be transmitted to a provider of the broadcasting stream; and

a message transmission unit which transmits the generated response message to the provider by using information about the provider included in the broadcasting stream,

wherein the data judgment module comprises an information storage unit which stores the viewing restriction information and the viewing restriction information can be changed exclusively by resetting the information storage unit, thereby a user or a user'"'"'s protector cannot directly change the viewing restriction information, but the viewing restriction information can be changed exclusively by resetting the information storage unit by an after-sales service center or an agency,

wherein if the viewing of the digital content is not permitted and the corresponding digital content is fee-based content, the control unit controls the message generation unit and the message transmission unit to generate and transmit a response packet to the provider of the corresponding digital content to refuse the downloading of the corresponding digital content.

32. The mobile communication terminal of claim 31, wherein the viewing restriction information is a standard of judgment of whether it is permitted for a user to view the broadcasting stream.

33. The mobile communication terminal of claim 31, wherein the data judgment module further comprises:

a viewing judgment unit which judges whether a user is permitted to view the broadcasting stream by comparing the broadcasting content information included in the broadcasting stream with the viewing restriction information and providing a result of the judgment to the control unit.

34. The mobile communication terminal of claim 31, wherein the broadcasting content information includes at least one of viewing grade information according to an age of a viewer of the digital content, a title, a genre, a speech, a provider, a performer, and a providing channel.

35. The mobile communication terminal of claim 31, wherein the viewing restriction information includes at least one of a user'"'"'s age, an age group, viewing grade information, a word set by the user, a title, a genre, a speech, a provider, a performer, and a providing channel.

36. The mobile communication terminal of claim 31, further comprising a data processing module which processes the received broadcasting stream to provide the broadcasting stream in a displayable state.

37. The mobile communication terminal of claim 36, wherein if it is judged by the viewing judgment unit that the viewing of the broadcasting stream is not permitted, the control unit intercepts the broadcasting stream being transferred to the data processing module.

38. The mobile communication terminal of claim 36, wherein if it is judged by the viewing judgment unit that the viewing of the broadcasting stream is not permitted, the control unit controls the data processing module to scramble the broadcasting stream.

39. The mobile communication terminal of claim 36, wherein if it is judged by the viewing judgment unit that the viewing of the broadcasting stream is not permitted, the control unit controls the data processing module to prevent the scrambled broadcasting stream from being descrambled.

40. The mobile communication terminal of claim 36, wherein if it is judged by the viewing judgment unit that the viewing of the broadcasting stream is not permitted, the control unit controls the data processing module to restrict the demodulation of the broadcasting stream.

41. The mobile communication terminal of claim 36, wherein if it is judged by the viewing judgment unit that the viewing of the broadcasting stream is not permitted, the control unit prevents the separation of the broadcasting stream into a video stream and an audio stream.

42. The mobile communication terminal of claim 33, wherein the information storage unit is a built-in memory that includes at least one of a flash memory and a random access memory (RAM).

43. The mobile communication terminal of claim 33, wherein the information storage unit is a detachable external memory.

44. The mobile communication terminal of claim 33, wherein the information storage unit is a subscriber identification module (SIM) card.

45. The mobile communication terminal of claim 33, further comprising a multi-card reader which reads information stored in the memory card and provides the read information to the viewing judgment unit;

wherein the information storage unit is at least one of a secure digital card, a multimedia card, a memory stick, a compact flash card, a smart media card, and a micro drive card.

46. The mobile communication terminal of claim 33, wherein the viewing restriction information stored in the information storage unit can be changed only by a predetermined person.

47. The mobile communication terminal of claim 31, wherein the broadcasting stream is of either a digital type or an analog type.

48. The mobile communication terminal of claim 31, wherein the broadcasting stream is a stream containing at least one of a voice, a text, an image, a moving image and broadcasting information.