Method and apparatus for screening audio-visual materials presented to a subscriber
US5757417A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Sep 23, 1997 |
| Grant date | May 26, 1998 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Sep 23, 2017 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04N21/4782
- WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A method and apparatus for the automatic access control to multimedia presentations at the receiver in accordance with a viewer selected access mode and access classification data encoded into the multimedia presentation. Screening classification codes (SCCs) are embedded in the Audio Visual Material (AVM) delivered to a subscribers home station. The screening classification codes identify the type of content that follows in the AVM stream. For instance, violent content (video and/or audio) provided to a home station may contain a SCC that indicates violent scenes or violent action is forth coming in the AVM stream. The home station takes the SCC that are encoded and/or embedded in the AVM stream and applies a subscriber selected screening criteria. The screening criteria or suppression criteria are AVM manipulation commands. These AVM manipulation commands can blank the audio and/or video, cause the display of the last acceptable frame, perform obscuration transforms on the AVM stream or otherwise manipulate the audio and/or video portions of the AVM stream. The subscriber associates an AVM manipulation command with each of the available SCCs. The home station applies the subscrib…
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.