Method and apparatus for controlling play of an audio signal

• US 9,762,963 B2
• Filed: 06/12/2015
• Issued: 09/12/2017
• 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): Sharma, Neeraj
• Application Number:
  US14/738,269
• Publication Number:
  US 20160029084A1
• Time in Patent Office: 823 Days
• Field of Search: 704254, 704231, 704 9, 704251, 704260, 704232, 704243, 704246, 348468, 725 1, 725131, 725 38, 715716
• 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 an audio presentation, the method comprising:

receiving an audio signal by at least one processor;

storing the audio signal in a memory, the memory in communication with the at least one processor;

receiving a filter list including at least one word;

the at least one processor identifying a portion of the audio signal corresponding to the at least one word based on a match between a comparative form of the audio signal and an audio representation of the at least one word, the comparative form of the audio signal being generated based on at least one energy representation of the audio signal, the at least one energy representation includes 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

the at least one processor manipulating the portion of the audio signal in the memory to filter the at least one word during the audio presentation by embedding a control code in the audio signal stored in the memory wherein the control code is adapted to attenuate the portion of the audio signal.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the audio representation of the at least one word is generated based on at least one energy value for a phonetic representation of the at least one word.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the control code is adapted to mute the portion of the audio signal.