Method and apparatus for controlling play of an audio signal

• US 9,066,046 B2
• Filed: 04/20/2009
• Issued: 06/23/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/26/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Clearplay Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Clearplay Incorporated
• Inventors: Jarman, Matthew T., Meisel, William S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Desir, Pierre-Louis
• Assistant Examiner(s): Sharma, Neeraj
• Application Number:
  US12/426,693
• Publication Number:
  US 20090204404A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,255 Days
• Field of Search: 704/260, 704/243, 704/231, 704/503, 704/211, 704/268, 704/271, 725/136, 725/28, 725/25, 725/1, 709/217, 348/468, 715/723, 434/156
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/13 Arrangements for device control affected by the broadcast information
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/48 for recognising items expressed in broadcast information
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/435 Processing of additional data, e.g. decrypting of additional data, reconstructing software from modules extracted from the transport stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4394 involving operations for analysing the audio stream, e.g. detecting features or characteristics in audio streams arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of audio in broadcast systems H04H60/58
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4396 by muting the audio signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/440236 by media transcoding, e.g. video is transformed into a slideshow of still pictures, audio is converted into text
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4542 Blocking scenes or portions of the received content, e.g. censoring scenes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4545 Input to filtering algorithms, e.g. filtering a region of the image
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4884 for displaying subtitles

Abstract

Apparatus and methods conforming to the present invention comprise a method of controlling playback of an audio signal through analysis of a corresponding close caption signal in conjunction with analysis of the corresponding audio signal. Objection text or other specified text in the close caption signal is identified through comparison with user identified objectionable text. Upon identification of the objectionable text, the audio signal is analyzed to identify the audio portion corresponding to the objectionable text. Upon identification of the audio portion, the audio signal may be controlled to mute the audible objectionable text.

Claims

1. A method of controlling play of an audio signal comprising:

receiving a closed caption signal;

identifying a specified text in the closed caption signal;

obtaining a comparative form of the specified text, the comparative form generated based on a phonetic representation of each sound category in the specified text, the phonetic representation characterized by time and energy;

obtaining a comparative form of the audio signal associated with the closed caption signal, the comparative form of the audio signal including a series of vectors of energy involving a total energy of a speech slice and an energy of one or more frequency bands of the speech slice; and

controlling playback of at least a portion of the audio signal corresponding to the specified text when a comparison of the energy of the comparative form of the specified text with the energy of the comparative form of the audio signal indicates a match between the audio signal and the specified text.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the operation of controlling playback further comprises attenuating a portion of the audio signal corresponding with the specified text of the closed caption signal.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the operation of controlling playback further comprises substantially deleting the portion of the audio signal corresponding with the specified text of the closed caption signal.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the operation of controlling playback further comprises issuing at least one command adapted to cause attenuation of a portion of the audio signal corresponding with the specified text of the closed caption signal.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the operation of controlling playback further comprises inserting at least one control code in the audio signal, the control code adapted to cause attenuation of a portion of the audio signal corresponding with the specified text from the closed caption signal.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising time extending the phonetic representation of the specified text to define a time extended phonetic representation of the specified text.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising determining at least one energy value for the time extended phonetic representation of the specified text to define the comparative form of the specified text.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the specified text is selected from the group comprising a space, a letter, a word, a phrase, a sentence, a control code, and a symbol.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein specified text is selected by a user.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the specified text is selected from a text considered objectionable.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the operation of identifying the specified text further comprising the operation of identifying a preceding text, the preceding text temporally preceding the specified text.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the comparative form of the specified text includes the preceding text from the closed caption signal.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the operation of controlling playback of the audio signal corresponding to the specified text further comprises controlling playback of the audio signal corresponding to the preceding text.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the phonetic representation of the specified text is obtained by applying a letter-to-sound algorithm to the specified text.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the operation of analyzing an audio signal as a function of the identification of the specified text from the closed caption signal comprises applying a dynamic time.

16. A processor of a computing system comprising a plurality of computer executable instructions configured to perform the method of claim 1.

17. A method of controlling play of an audio signal comprising:

converting a specified portion of a closed caption text signal to an audio equivalent of the specified portion, the audio equivalent based on a phonetic representation of the specified text, the phonetic representation characterized by energy;

comparing the energy of the audio equivalent of the specified portion of the closed caption text signal to an energy of a comparative form of an audio signal to identify a portion of the audio signal corresponding with the specified portion of the closed caption signal, the energy of the comparative form of the audio signal involving a total energy of a speech slice and energy of one or more frequency bands of the speech slice; and

controlling playback of the portion of the audio signal corresponding with the specified portion of the closed caption signal.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the operation of controlling playback further comprises attenuating the portion of the audio signal corresponding with the specified portion of the closed caption signal.

19. The method of claim 17 wherein the operation of controlling playback further comprises substantially deleting the portion of the audio signal corresponding with the specified portion of the closed caption signal.

20. The method of claim 17 wherein the operation of controlling playback further comprises issuing at least one command adapted to cause attenuation of the portion of the audio signal corresponding with the specified portion of the closed caption signal.

21. The method of claim 17 wherein the operation of controlling playback further comprises inserting at least one control code in the audio signal, the control code adapted to cause attenuation of the audio signal corresponding with the specified portion of the closed caption signal.

22. The method of claim 17 further comprising time extending the phonetic representation of the specified portion of the closed caption signal to define a time extended phonetic representation.

23. The method of claim 22 further comprising determining at least one energy value for the time extended phonetic representation to define the comparative form of the specified portion of the closed caption signal.

24. A processor of a computing system comprising a plurality of computer executable instructions configured to perform the method of claim 17.

25. A system for filtering objectionable words comprising:

a closed caption analyzer executable by at least one processor and configured to identify a specified text in a closed caption text stream based on a comparison of each word in the closed caption text stream to at least one filter list;

a closed caption audiotizer executable by the at least one processor and configured to generate an audio equivalent of the specified text by converting the specified text to a phonetic representation associated with at least one energy value; and

an audio stream analyzer executable by the at least one processor and configured to match a portion of an audio signal with the specified text by comparing the at least one energy value of the audio equivalent with an energy of a comparative form of the audio signal involving a total energy of a speech slice and energy of one or more frequency bands of the speech slice, the audio stream analyzer further configured to filter the portion of the audio signal.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the portion of the audio signal is filtered by modifying the audio signal to attenuate at least one of a magnitude or an amplitude of the portion of the audio signal.

27. The system of claim 25, wherein the portion of the audio signal is filtered by modifying the audio signal to substantially delete the portion of the audio signal.

28. The system of claim 25, wherein the portion of the audio signal is filtered by issuing a command to attenuate at least one of a magnitude or an amplitude of the portion of the audio signal.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein the command is synchronized with a playback of the portion of the audio signal.

30. The system of claim 25, wherein the portion of the audio signal is filtered by embedding a command in the audio signal to cause attenuation of at least one of a magnitude or an amplitude of the portion of the audio signal.

31. The system of claim 25, wherein the at least one filter list includes at least one of:

a user identified objectionable text list;

a root word list;

or an exclude word list.

32. The system of claim 25, wherein identifying the specified text in the closed caption text stream includes determining whether the specified text is objectionable based on a context of use.

33. The system of claim 32, wherein determining whether the specified text is objectionable includes comparing the specified text to other words in a phrase in the closed caption text stream containing the specified text.

34. The system of claim 25, wherein the specified text includes objectionable text and text preceding the objectionable text.

35. The system of claim 34, wherein the audio equivalent is generated in a first-in-first-out order with the preceding text preceding the objectionable text.

36. The system of claim 25, wherein converting the text to a phonetic representation includes assigning an identifier for each phonetic category included in the specified text.

37. The system of claim 36, wherein the phonetic category is one of:

a space category;

a vowel, diphthongs, and semi-vowels category;

a stop category;

a nasals category;

or a fricatives, whispers, and affricatives category.

38. The system of claim 37, wherein the space category is characterized by an extended silence or lack of properties associated with speech;

the vowel, diphthongs, and semi-vowels category is characterized by a high energy level and a low frequency;

the stop category is characterized by a shot period with no sound followed by a burst of sound;

the nasals category includes a lower frequency sound associated with a nasal cavity; and

the fricatives, whispers, and affricatives category is characterized by energy concentrated in a high frequency.

39. The system of claim 25, wherein the specified text is converted to the phonetic representation on a letter-by-letter basis.

40. The system of claim 25, wherein the phonetic representation is time extended for association with an average duration of a phonetic category in the specified text.

41. The system of claim 25, wherein the one or more frequency bands include at least one of:

a 150-1500 Hz band;

a 1500-3000 Hz band;

or a band greater than 3000 Hz.

42. The system of claim 25, wherein the portion of an audio signal is matched with the specified text based on a time alignment between the audio equivalent and the comparative form of the audio signal.