Method and apparatus for multimedia content filtering

• US 9,275,047 B1
• Filed: 09/26/2005
• Issued: 03/01/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/26/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Quest Software, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Dell Software, Inc. (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Yanovsky, Roman, Korsunsky, Igor, Gmuender, John, Yanovsky, Boris
• Primary Examiner(s): Perveen, Rehana
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hoffler, Raheem
• Application Number:
  US11/236,280
• Time in Patent Office: 3,809 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/00 Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/4393 Multimedia presentations, e.g. slide shows, multimedia albums
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/65 Network streaming protocols, e.g. real-time transport protocol [RTP] or real-time control protocol [RTCP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/765 intermediate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46

Abstract

Method and apparatus for multimedia content filtering are described herein. In one embodiment, an example of a network access device, in response to multimedia content transmitted from a source over a first network and destined to a destination over a second network, opens the multimedia content within the network access device interfacing the first and second networks. A content rating operation is performed on the opened multimedia content to determine whether the multimedia content should be transmitted to the destination over the second network. Other methods and apparatuses are also described.

Claims

1. A method for multimedia content filtering, comprising:

receiving at a network access device, multimedia content transmitted from a source over a first network and destined for a destination over a second network, the network access device communicatively coupled between the first and second networks and including a media player that plays the multimedia content; and

executing instructions stored in memory of the network access device, wherein execution of the instructions by a processor;

opens the multimedia content;

plays at least a portion of the multimedia content;

extracts audio content from the multimedia content with an audio codec of the media player;

recognizes an audio pattern within the extracted audio content;

performs content rating on the opened multimedia content while or after playing the multimedia content, wherein performing the content rating includes classifying the opened multimedia content based on the recognized audio pattern;

determines that the entire multimedia content should not be transmitted to the destination over the second network based on the content rating; and

terminates transmission of the multimedia content transmitted from the plurality of sources over the first network to the destination over the second network.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein recognizing the audio pattern of the audio content includes invoking a speech recognition process.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein classifying the opened multimedia content based on the recognized audio pattern includes classifying the recognized audio pattern based on at least one of a vocabulary and semantics of the recognized audio pattern.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein criteria of the classification of the recognized audio pattern are configured by an administrator associated with the network access device and stored in a database within the network access device.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising identifying and removing one or more offensive words in the audio pattern before delivering the multimedia content to the destination over the second network.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the network access device includes functionalities of one or more of anti-spyware, firewall, intrusion detection and prevention, and IPSec VPN (virtual private network).

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

buffering the multimedia content while the multimedia content is opened and the content filtering is performed on the multimedia content.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second networks are the same network.

9. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium having embodied thereon executable code that when executed causes a machine to perform a method for multimedia content filtering, the method comprising:

receiving at a network access device, multimedia content transmitted from a source over a first network and destined for a destination over a second network, the network access device communicatively coupled between the first and second networks and including a media player that plays the multimedia content;

opening the multimedia content;

playing at least a portion of the multimedia content;

extracting audio content from the multimedia content with an audio codec of the media player;

recognizing an audio pattern within the audio content;

performing content rating on the opened multimedia content while or after playing the multimedia content, wherein performing the content rating includes classifying the opened multimedia content based on the recognized audio pattern;

determining that the entire multimedia content should not be transmitted to the destination over the second network based on the content rating; and

terminating transmission of the multimedia content transmitted from the source over the first network to the destination over the second network.

10. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein recognizing the audio pattern of the audio content includes invoking a speech recognition process.

11. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein classifying the opened multimedia content based on the recognized audio pattern includes classifying the recognized audio pattern based on at least one of a vocabulary and semantics of the recognized audio pattern.

12. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein criteria of the classification of the recognized audio pattern are configured by an administrator associated with the network access device and stored in a database within the network access device.

13. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the method further comprises identifying and removing one or more offensive words in the audio pattern before delivering the multimedia content to the destination over the second network.

14. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the network access device includes functionalities of one or more anti-spyware, firewall, intrusion detection and prevention, and IPSec VPN (virtual private network).

15. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the method further comprises buffering the multimedia content while the multimedia content is opened and the content filtering is performed on the multimedia content.

16. An apparatus, comprising:

a network access device that receives multimedia content transmitted from a source over a first network and destined for a destination over a second network, wherein the network access device is communicatively coupled between the first network and the second network and comprises;

a multimedia processing unit that the multimedia content, wherein the multimedia processing unit includes a media player that plays the multimedia content at least a portion of the multimedia content;

an audio codec that extracts audio content from the opened multimedia content, the audio codec coupled to the multimedia processing unit;

a speech recognition engine that recognizes an audio pattern within the extracted audio content, the speech recognition engine coupled to the multimedia processing unit;

a content filtering unit that performs content rating on the opened multimedia content while or after playing the multimedia content, wherein performing the content rating includes classifying the opened multimedia content based the recognized audio pattern, determining that the entire multimedia content should not be transmitted to the destination over the second network based on the content rating, and terminating transmission of the multimedia content transmitted from the source over the first network to the destination over the second network.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the content filtering unit classifies the recognized audio pattern based on at least one of a vocabulary and semantics of the recognized audio pattern.

18. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the content filtering unit includes a classification unit that classifies the recognized audio pattern based on a set of predetermined criteria configured by an administrator and stored in a content filtering policy database.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the network access device further includes an action unit that removes one or more offensive words from the audio pattern recognized by the speech recognition unit and classified by the classification unit before delivering the multimedia content to the destination over the second network.

20. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the network access device includes functionalities of one or more anti-spyware, firewall, intrusion detection and prevention, and IPSec VPN (virtual private network).

21. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the network access device further includes a buffer that buffers the multimedia content while the multimedia content is open and the content filtering unit performs content filtering on the multimedia content.