Apparatus and method for blocking television commercials and providing an archive interrogation program
AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsCraig William Fellenstein, Rick Allen Hamilton II
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An apparatus and method is disclosed for blocking specific television commercials from the viewer's television based upon the characteristics of the television commercial and a program to place the blocked television commercials into an archive. An archive interrogation program then acquires the users search criteria and sends the search criteria to the content search program for a list of matches. The matches are displayed to the user and the user can select a segment for viewing.
Claims29
A method for searching archived blocked television commercials comprising:
- receiving a first television signal;
- recognizing said first television signal in a logical unit;
- blocking said first television signal by the logical unit;
- saving the first television signal to an archive;
- buffering the first television signal;
- specifying at least one search parameter;
- searching said archive for a data that matches said search parameters;
- responsive to finding the data that matches said search parameters, identifying the first television signal as a second signal;
- saving the second
- displaying the second signal.
An apparatus for searching archived blocked television commercials comprising:
- a logical unit with a memory;
- a program stored in said memory;
- said memory, so configured by said program, causes said logical unit perform operations comprising:
- receiving a first television signal;
- recognizing said first television signal in the logical unit;
- blocking said first television signal by the logical unit;
- saving the first television signal to an archive;
- buffering the first television signal;
- specifying at least one search parameter;
- searching said archive for data that matches said search parameters;
- responsive to finding a data that matches said search parameters, identifying a first television signal as a second signal;
- displaying the second signal.
An apparatus for searching archived blocked television commercials comprising:
- means for receiving a first television signal;
- means for recognizing said first television signal in the logical unit;
- means for blocking said first television signal by the logical unit;
- means for saving the first television signal to an archive;
- means for buffering the first television signal;
- means for specifying at least one search parameter;
- means for searching said archive for data that matches said search parameters;
- responsive to finding a data that matches said search parameters, means for identifying a first television signal as a second signal;
- means for displaying the second signal.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.