Methods and apparatus for filtering content in a video stream using closed captioning data

• US 8,977,106 B2
• Filed: 11/11/2011
• Issued: 03/10/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/19/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dish Technologies LLC (Dish Network Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Echostar Technologies LLC (Echostar Corporation)
• Inventors: Casagrande, Steven Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Thai
• Assistant Examiner(s): MESA, JOSE M
• Application Number:
  US13/294,800
• Publication Number:
  US 20120057847A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,215 Days
• Field of Search: 386/245
• US Class Current: 386/245
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/105 of operating discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/28 by using information signals recorded by the same method as the main recording G11B27/22 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4147 PVR [Personal Video Recorder] H04N5/76 takes precedence ; arrangements for broadcast with accumulation-type receivers H04H20/40
• 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 21/4545 Input to filtering algorithms, e.g. filtering a region of the image
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47214 for content reservation or setting reminders; for requesting event notification, e.g. of sport results or stock market stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; notification of incoming messages in packet switching networks H04L51/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4884 for displaying subtitles
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/782 on tape
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/0885 for the transmission of subtitles
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8233 the additional signal being a character code signal

Abstract

Various embodiments of apparatus and/or methods are described for skipping and/or filtering content from a video stream using closed captioning data associated with the video stream. The closed captioning data is parsed using metadata to identify portions of the video stream to skip during presentation, and/or to identify portions of the video stream to output to a user. The portions of the video stream that are to be skipped are filtered from the video stream, and the filtered video stream is presented to a user.

Claims

1. A method for filtering a video stream, the method comprising:

receiving a video stream including at least one segment of a show, at least one interstitial of the show, and closed captioning data associated with the video stream;

receiving metadata referencing the closed captioning data to identify a first anchor frame and a second anchor frame within a segment of the show, the metadata comprising a first displayable text string that is unique for the segment and a second displayable text string that is unique for the segment, the first and second displayable text strings included within the closed captioning data as originally transmitted by a content provider, and the metadata further comprising a first offset, relative to the first anchor frame, that identifies a beginning of the segment, and a second offset, relative to the second anchor frame, that identifies an ending of the segment;

parsing the closed captioning data associated with the video stream to locate the first anchor frame in the segment, corresponding with the presentation of the first displayable text string located in the closed captioning data;

identifying a beginning boundary of the segment based on the located first anchor frame and the first offset;

parsing the closed captioning data associated with the video stream to locate the second anchor frame in the segment, corresponding with the presentation of the second displayable text string located in the closed captioning data;

identifying an ending boundary of the segment based on the located second anchor frame and the second offset;

filtering the at least one interstitial from the video stream based on the identified beginning and ending boundaries to generate a filtered video stream; and

outputting the filtered video stream for presentation to a user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the first and second anchor frames is associated with a presentation location of the last two bytes of the respective displayable text string in the video stream.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein parsing the closed captioning data associated with the video stream further comprises:

indexing the closed captioning data according to a presentation order to generate indexed closed captioning data;

discarding null closed captioning bytes from the indexed closed captioning data; and

parsing the indexed closed captioning data to identify the first and second anchor frames.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

creating a beginning bookmark, identifying the beginning of the segment, based on the first anchor frame and the first offset; and

creating an ending bookmark, identifying the ending of the segment, based on the second anchor frame and the second offset.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein creating the beginning and ending bookmarks is performed responsive to receiving the metadata, the method further comprising:

receiving a request to view the video stream, subsequent to creation of the beginning and ending bookmarks; and

outputting the filtered video stream responsive to the request.

6. A method for filtering a video stream, the method comprising:

receiving a video stream including first and second segments of a show, at least one interstitial of the show temporally positioned between the first and second segments, and closed captioning data associated with the video stream;

receiving metadata referencing the closed captioning data to identify first and second anchor frames within the video stream, the metadata comprising first and second displayable text strings included within the closed captioning data as originally transmitted by a content provider, and the metadata further comprising a first offset relative to the first anchor frame and a second offset relative to the second anchor frame;

parsing the closed captioning data associated with the video stream to locate the first anchor frame corresponding with the presentation of the first displayable text string located in the closed captioning data;

identifying a beginning boundary of the at least one interstitial of the show based on the located first anchor frame and the first offset;

parsing the closed captioning data associated with the video stream to locate the second anchor frame corresponding with the presentation of the second displayable text string located in the closed captioning data;

identifying an ending boundary of the at least one interstitial of the show based on the located second anchor frame and the second offset;

filtering the at least one interstitial from the video stream based on the identified beginning and ending boundaries to generate a filtered video stream; and

outputting the filtered video stream for presentation to a user.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein each of the first and second anchor frames is associated with a presentation location of the last two bytes of the respective displayable text string in the video stream.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein parsing the closed captioning data associated with the video stream further comprises:

indexing the closed captioning data according to a presentation order to generate indexed closed captioning data;

discarding null closed captioning bytes from the indexed closed captioning data; and

parsing the indexed closed captioning data to identify the first and second anchor frames.

9. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

creating a beginning bookmark, identifying the beginning of the at least one interstitial of the show, based on the first anchor frame and the first offset; and

creating an ending bookmark, identifying the ending of the at least one interstitial of the show, based on the second anchor frame and the second offset.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein creating the beginning and ending bookmarks is performed responsive to receiving the metadata, the method further comprising:

receiving a request to view the video stream, subsequent to creation of the beginning and ending bookmarks; and

outputting the filtered video stream responsive to the request.

11. The method of claim 6, wherein each of the first and second displayable text strings is unique within the closed captioning data.

12. A digital video recorder comprising:

a receiver that receives a video stream including at least one segment of a show, at least one interstitial of the show, and closed captioning data associated with the video stream, and that receives metadata referencing the closed captioning data to identify first and second anchor frames within the video stream, the metadata comprising first and second displayable text strings included within the closed captioning data as originally transmitted by a content provider, the metadata further comprising a first offset relative to the first anchor frame, and a second offset relative to the second anchor frame;

a recording module that stores the video stream on a storage medium for subsequent presentation to a user;

a parsing module that parses the closed captioning data associated with the video stream to locate the first anchor frame corresponding with the presentation of the first displayable text string located in the closed captioning data recorded, identify a beginning boundary of a segment of the show based on the first anchor frame and the first offset, parse the closed captioning data associated with the video stream to locate the second anchor frame corresponding with the presentation of the second displayable text string located in the closed captioning data recorded and identify an ending boundary of the segment of the show based on the second anchor frame and the second offset; and

a presentation module that filters the at least one interstitial from the video stream based on the beginning and ending boundaries, and that outputs the filtered video stream to the user.

13. The digital video recorder of claim 12, wherein the parsing module is further operable to:

index the closed captioning data according to a presentation order to generate indexed closed captioning data;

discard null closed captioning bytes from the indexed closed captioning data; and

parse the indexed closed captioning data to identify the first and second anchor frames.

14. The digital video recorder of claim 12, wherein the parsing module is further operable to:

create a beginning bookmark, identifying the beginning of the segment, based on the first anchor frame and the first offset; and

create an ending bookmark, identifying the ending of the segment, based on the second anchor frame and the second offset.

15. The digital video recorder of claim 14, wherein the parsing module creates the beginning and ending bookmarks responsive to receiving the metadata and the presentation module is configured to:

receive a request to view the video stream, subsequent to creation of the beginning and ending bookmarks; and

output the filtered video stream responsive to the request.

16. The digital video recorder of claim 12, wherein each of the first and second anchor frames is associated with a presentation location of the last two bytes of the respective displayable text string in the video stream.

17. The digital video recorder of claim 12, wherein the first anchor frame comprises a video frame within the segment of the show and the second anchor frame comprises a video frame within another segment of the show.