Spoiler prevention

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11748427-B2
Application number	US-202218147988-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 29, 2022
Priority date	Jun 30, 2020
Publication date	Sep 5, 2023
Grant date	Sep 5, 2023

Abstract

Methods, systems and computer program products are provided for spoiler prevention. Media consumption applications may be placed in “spoiler-free” mode, for example, to prevent media content from spoiling first-hand user experience. A user may provide and/or authorize access to and use of spoiler prevention information. A user may request media content (e.g., while surfing the Internet). Digital media content to be presented to a user may be searched in real-time and/or pre-searched for spoiler content and/or associated spoiler indications relative to spoiler prevention information. Identified spoiler content may be concealed from users. A procedure may be provided for users to determine one or more reasons why content is concealed, to selectively reveal concealed content, and to provide feedback whether concealed content was or was not spoiler content for a user. Feedback may be used to improve spoiler prevention, for example, by retraining a machine learning model, which may be user-specific.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A spoiler prevention method comprising:
caching spoiler content identified for a plurality of requests from a plurality of users for digital media content;
receiving a request from a user for the digital media content;
obtaining spoiler prevention information;
searching the cached spoiler content;
identifying at least a portion of the digital media content as spoiler content by matching the cached spoiler content to the spoiler prevention information; and
concealing the identified spoiler content in the digital media content.

2. The spoiler prevention method of claim 1 , wherein said caching the spoiler content identified for the plurality of requests from the plurality of users for the digital media content comprises uploading the cached spoiler content to a Web content index.

3. The spoiler prevention method of claim 1 , further comprising:
identifying the spoiler content for the plurality of requests from the plurality of users for the digital media content; and
associating the spoiler content with a spoiler content indicator.

4. The spoiler prevention method of claim 3 , wherein said identifying at least a portion of the digital media content as spoiler content by matching the cached spoiler content to the spoiler prevention information comprises matching the spoiler content indicator to the spoiler prevention information.

5. The spoiler prevention method of claim 1 , wherein said concealing comprises at least one of blocking, removing, not displaying, covering, blurring, and not downloading.

6. The spoiler prevention method of claim 1 , wherein said identifying at least a portion of the digital media content as spoiler content by matching the cached spoiler content to the spoiler prevention information comprises:
identifying episodes watched by the user for a series or other portion of related digital media content of interest to the user; and
identifying the at least a portion of the digital media content as pertaining to information about an episode of the series or other portion of related digital media content of interest to the user that the user has not yet watched.

7. The spoiler prevention method of claim 1 , further comprising:
providing a procedure for the user to selectively reveal the concealed spoiler content.

8. A spoiler prevention system comprising:
one or more processors; and
one or more memory devices that store spoiler prevention program code configured to be executed by the one or more processors to perform a spoiler prevention method, the spoiler prevention method comprising:
caching spoiler content identified for a plurality of requests from a plurality of users for digital media content;
receiving a request from a user for the digital media content;
obtaining spoiler prevention information;
searching the cached spoiler content;
identifying at least a portion of the digital media content as spoiler content by matching the cached spoiler content to the spoiler prevention information; and
concealing the identified spoiler content in the digital media content.

9. The spoiler prevention system of claim 8 , wherein said caching the spoiler content identified for the plurality of requests from the plurality of users for the digital media content comprises uploading the cached spoiler content to a Web content index.

10. The spoiler prevention system of claim 8 , wherein the spoiler prevention method further comprises:
identifying the spoiler content for the plurality of requests from the plurality of users for the digital media content; and
associating the spoiler content with a spoiler content indicator.

11. The spoiler prevention system of claim 10 , wherein said identifying at least a portion of the digital media content as spoiler content by matching the cached spoiler content to the spoiler prevention information comprises matching the spoiler content indicator to the spoiler prevention information.

12. The spoiler prevention system of claim 8 , wherein said concealing comprises at least one of blocking, removing, not displaying, covering, blurring, and not downloading.

13. The spoiler prevention system of claim 8 , wherein said identifying at least a portion of the digital media content as spoiler content by matching the cached spoiler content to the spoiler prevention information comprises:
identifying episodes watched by the user for a series or other portion of related digital media content of interest to the user; and
identifying the at least a portion of the digital media content as pertaining to information about an episode of the series or other portion of related digital media content of interest to the user that the user has not yet watched.

14. The spoiler prevention system of claim 8 , wherein the spoiler prevention method further comprises:
providing a procedure for the user to selectively reveal the concealed spoiler content.

15. A computer-readable storage medium having program instructions recorded thereon that, when executed by a processing circuit, perform a method, the method comprising:
caching spoiler content identified for a plurality of requests from a plurality of users for digital media content;
receiving a request from a user for the digital media content;
obtaining spoiler prevention information;
searching the cached spoiler content;
identifying at least a portion of the digital media content as spoiler content by matching the cached spoiler content to the spoiler prevention information; and
concealing the identified spoiler content in the digital media content.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein said caching the spoiler content identified for the plurality of requests from the plurality of users for the digital media content comprises uploading the cached spoiler content to a Web content index.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein the method further comprises:
identifying the spoiler content for the plurality of requests from the plurality of users for the digital media content; and
associating the spoiler content with a spoiler content indicator.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 17 , wherein said identifying at least a portion of the digital media content as spoiler content by matching the cached spoiler content to the spoiler prevention information comprises matching the spoiler content indicator to the spoiler prevention information.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein said concealing comprises at least one of blocking, removing, not displaying, covering, blurring, and not downloading.

20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein the method further comprises:
providing a procedure for the user to selectively reveal the concealed spoiler content.

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Ebersol Geoffrey T
• West Jeff
• Kelly Benjamin D
• Butcher Aaron M
• Andrew Felix G T I

Classifications

• G06F16/9535 Primary

  Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation · CPC title

• G06F16/483

  using metadata automatically derived from the content · CPC title

• G06F16/951

  Indexing; Web crawling techniques · CPC title

• G06F16/9538

  Presentation of query results · CPC title

• G06N20/00

  Machine learning · CPC title