Smart mechanism for blocking media responsive to user environment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9955218-B2
Application number	US-201514697920-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 28, 2015
Priority date	Apr 28, 2015
Publication date	Apr 24, 2018
Grant date	Apr 24, 2018

Abstract

Systems and methods are described herein for blocking sections of media using censoring techniques adaptive to context of the user environment. For example, by first determining features of the user environment such as location, time of day, attention level of the user, number of users, the type of media system being used, or the layout of a user environment, different methods of censorship and blocking may be implemented. A group of friends watching television with rapt attention may be shown a highlight reel; a single user not paying attention to a movie may be shown a synopsis of the plot; or a child watching a cartoon on a smart-phone may be presented with a social media update to seamlessly distract their attention. Thus unwanted content is blocked in an intelligent fashion, and overall user experience is enhanced.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for blocking sections of media from being presented to a user comprising:
generating for display a media asset using user equipment;
determining, based on a characteristic associated with a user, that a segment of the media asset is to be prevented from being generated for display to the user;
selecting, using control circuitry, a plurality of factors for determining a context in which the user is viewing the media asset, wherein each of the plurality of factors represents a state unrelated to the media asset that is external to the user equipment;
automatically retrieving first data associated with a first of the plurality of factors, wherein the first data identifies positions of a plurality of inanimate objects within a threshold proximity of the user equipment, wherein each of the plurality of inanimate objects is of a different type;
automatically retrieving second data associated with a second of the plurality of factors;
retrieving, from a database, based on a combination of the first data and the second data, replacement content for the segment; and
replacing the segment with the identified replacement content.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein replacing the segment further comprises:
determining (1) a start time corresponding to a time when the segment is to be presented to the user, and (2) a duration of the segment;
generating for display, at the start time, the replacement content;
presenting the replacement content to the user for the duration; and
generating for display the media asset after the replacement content has ended.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the replacement content comprises at least one of an application, a broadcast channel, a simulated phone call, a simulated news broadcast, a social media update, a website, and other media that is normally accessible by a type of a device on which the media asset is generated for display.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the context further comprises identifying a user environment surrounding the user, and wherein the replacement content is based on the user environment surrounding the user.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the plurality of factors comprises at least one of: a geographic location, a date and time, a type of a device on which the media asset is generated for display, a user profile associated with the user, a proximity of a second user to the user, and a user profile associated with the second user.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the characteristic associated with the user comprises at least one of an age, name, height, facial features, body proportions, voice, user identification, gender, ethnicity, demographic information, past user behavior, user profile information and content preferences.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein determining that the segment of the media asset is to be prevented from being generated for display further comprises:
imaging a body of a user in a field of view of a camera;
identifying at least one of facial features and body proportions from the imaged body;
determining the characteristic associated with the user based on the at least one of the identified facial features and the body proportions; and
determining, based on the characteristic, that the segment is to be prevented from being generated for display to the user.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein determining that the segment of the media asset is to be prevented from being generated for display further comprises:
determining, based on a profile associated with the user, a set of content categories that are to be prevented from being generated for display to the user;
monitoring metadata associated with the media asset, wherein the metadata comprise an indication of content categories associated with each segment of the media asset; and
determining, based on the monitoring, that the segment is to be prevented from being generated for display to the user in response to detecting metadata associated with the segment that matches the set of content categories.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
presenting the replacement content in place of the segment;
receiving a user selection of an override option during the presentation of the replacement content;
in response to receiving the selection of the override option, prompting the user to input a credential;
receiving input of the credential;
determining whether the credential is valid; and
in response to determining that the credential is valid, suspending the presentation of the replacement content, and resuming the generation for display of the segment of the media asset.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining a level of attentiveness of the user;
determining whether the level of attentiveness exceeds a threshold level;
in response to determining that the level of attentiveness exceeds the threshold level:
identifying replacement content comprising an advertisement, and
replacing the segment of the media asset with the advertisement; and

in response to determining that the level of attentiveness does not exceed the threshold level:
identifying replacement content comprising non-advertising media, and
replacing the segment of the media asset with the non-advertising media.

11. A system for blocking section of media from being presented to a user comprising:
user input circuitry; and
control circuitry configured to:
generate for display a media asset using user equipment;
determine, based on a characteristic associated with a user, that a segment of the media asset is to be prevented from being generated for display to the user;
select a plurality of factors to determine a context in which the user is viewing the media asset, wherein each of the plurality of factors represents a state unrelated to the media asset that is external to the user equipment;
automatically retrieve first data associated with a first of the plurality of factors, wherein the first data identifies positions of a plurality of inanimate objects within a threshold proximity of the user equipment, wherein each of the plurality of inanimate objects is of a different type;
automatically retrieve second data associated with a second of the plurality of factors;
retrieve, from a database, based on a combination of the first data and the second data, replacement content for the segment; and
replace the segment with the identified replacement content.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the control circuitry is further configured, when replacing the segment, to:
determine (1) a start time corresponding to a time when the segment is to be presented to the user, and (2) a duration of the segment;
generate for display, at the start time, the replacement content;
present the replacement content to the user for the duration; and
generate for display the media asset after the replacement content has ended.

13. The system of claim 11 , wherein the replacement content comprises at least one of an application, a broadcast channel, a simulated phone call, a simulated news broadcast, a social media update, a website, and other media that is normally accessible by a type of a device on which the media asset is generated for display.

14. The system of claim 11 , wherein the control circuitry is further configured, when determining the context further, to identify a user environment surrounding the user, and wherein the control circuitry is further configured to identify replacement content based on the user environment surrounding the user.

15. The system of claim 11 , wherein at

Assignees

• Rovi Guides Inc

Inventors

• Panchaksharaiah Vishwas Sharadanagar
• Gupta Vikram Makam

Classifications

• H04N21/4542 Primary

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

• H04N21/45455

  applied to a region of the image · CPC title

• H04N21/44016

  involving splicing one content stream with another content stream, e.g. for substituting a video clip · 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

• H04N21/441

  Acquiring end-user identification {, e.g. using personal code sent by the remote control or by inserting a card} · CPC title