Inhibiting display of advertisements with age-inappropriate content

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016112760-A1
Application number	US-201414520186-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Oct 21, 2014
Priority date	Oct 21, 2014
Publication date	Apr 21, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A method includes determining, at a media device, a rating associated with an advertisement. The method also includes receiving, at the media device, information from one or more sensors, where the information indicates that a viewer (e.g., a child) is located within an area associated with the media device. The method includes determining whether the advertisement includes age-inappropriate content for the viewer based on the rating and based on the information. When the advertisement includes age-inappropriate content for the viewer, the method includes inhibiting display of the advertisement.

First claim

1 . A method comprising:
determining, at a media device, a rating associated with an advertisement; receiving, at the media device, information from one or more sensors, wherein the information indicates that a viewer is located within an area associated with the media device; determining whether the advertisement includes age-inappropriate content for the viewer based on the rating and based on the information; and in response to determining that the advertisement includes age-inappropriate content for the viewer, prompting to activate an a e-inappropriate advertisement inhibition feature to inhibit display of the advertisement.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining that the viewer is located within the area associated with the media device in response to receiving a wireless signal from a mobile computing device, wherein the wireless signal includes viewer identification information.

3 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining that the viewer is located within the area associated with the media device in response to detecting a token.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the token is detectable based on a radio frequency identification (RFID) signal.

5 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the token is detectable based on a near-field communication signal.

6 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the token is included within a device of a child.

7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the device includes a wearable computing device.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the rating is assigned by an advertiser prior to the advertisement being received at the media device.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the rating is assigned by a service provider prior to the advertisement being received at the media device.

10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the media device determines the rating of the advertisement based on closed captioning information associated with the advertisement.

11 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the media device determines the rating of the advertisement based on metadata associated with the advertisement.

12 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the media device estimates the age of the viewer based on visual information received from the one or more sensors, audio information received from the one or more sensors, or a combination thereof.

13 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising in response to determining that the advertisement includes age-inappropriate content for the viewer, displaying alternative age-appropriate content for the viewer.

14 . The method of claim 13 , wherein displaying the alternative age-appropriate content for the viewer includes:
displaying an alternative advertisement that includes age-appropriate content for the viewer; or displaying an alternative channel that includes age-appropriate content for the viewer.

15 . A computer-readable storage device comprising instructions executable by a processor of a device to perform operations including:
receiving an advertisement; determining a genre of the advertisement; determining a rating of the advertisement based on the genre of the advertisement; receiving information from one or more sensors, wherein the information indicates that a viewer is located within an area associated with a media device; determining whether the advertisement includes age-inappropriate content for the viewer based on the rating and based on the information; and in response to determining that the advertisement includes age-inappropriate content for the viewer, prompting to activate an age-inappropriate advertisement inhibition feature to inhibit display of the advertisement.

16 . The computer-readable storage device of claim 15 , wherein the genre of the advertisement is determined based on closed captioning information associated with the advertisement, metadata associated with the advertisement, or a combination thereof.

17 . The computer-readable storage device of claim 15 , the operations further comprising determining that the viewer is located in the area associated with the media device in response to detecting a token that is associated with the viewer.

18 . A media device comprising:
a sensor; a processor; and a memory in communication with the processor, the memory including instructions executable by the processor to perform operations including:
receiving an advertisement, wherein first information associated with the advertisement identifies a rating of the advertisement;
receiving second information from the sensor, wherein the second information indicates that a viewer is located within an area associated with the media device;
determining whether the advertisement includes age-inappropriate content for the viewer based on the rating and based on the second information; and
in response to determining that the advertisement includes age-inappropriate content for the viewer, prompting to activate an age-inappropriate advertisement inhibition feature to inhibit display of the advertisement.

19 . The media device of claim 18 , the operations further comprising causing display of alternative content while inhibiting display of the advertisement.

20 . The media device of claim 18 , the operations further comprising displaying the advertisement in response to determining that the advertisement includes age-appropriate content for the viewer based on the rating and based on the information.

Assignees

• At & T Mobility Ii Llc

Inventors

• Kosseifi Mario
• Thomas Joseph

Classifications

• H04N21/4223

  Cameras (H04N23/00 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H04N21/4542 Primary

  Blocking scenes or portions of the received content, e.g. censoring scenes · CPC title

• H04N21/435

  Processing of additional data, e.g. decrypting of additional data, reconstructing software from modules extracted from the transport stream · CPC title

• H04N21/4753

  for user identification, e.g. by entering a PIN or password (cryptographic authentication protocols H04L9/32; networks authentication protocols H04L63/08) · CPC title

• H04N21/812

  involving advertisement data (advertising per se G06Q30/02) · CPC title