US 2007/0186235 A1 · SYNCHRONIZING FILTER METADATA WITH A MULTIMEDIA PRESENTATION

Abstract

A method, system and apparatus for applying and synchronizing filter information with a multimedia presentation, such as a movie provided in a video-on-demand context, to suppress objectionable content. In one example, filter information, which includes an indicia of a portion of the multimedia presentation including objectionable content and a type of suppression action, is provided on either a set-top-box or a video-on-demand server. A user selects a particular video-on-demand presentation, and the selection is transmitted to the set-top-box. Filtering may take place at the set-top-box side such that the complete video-on-demand movie is transmitted to the set-top box and then content suppression, such as skipping, muting, cropping, and blurring, takes place at the set-top-box. Alternatively, some or all suppression may take place at the server such that some or all of the objectionable content is not transmitted to the set-top-box. Additionally, whether in a video-on-demand, DVD, or other environment it may be necessary to synchronize filter with the multimedia content so that the proper objectionable content is suppressed.

Claims42

Dependent claims

A method for suppressing some multimedia content of a multimedia content presentation supplied from a remote server to a client multimedia content playback device comprising:

providing for selection of at least one multimedia content presentation from a plurality of multimedia content presentations;
providing for activation of at least one filter to apply to the at least one multimedia content presentation, the at least one filter configured to identify a portion of the multimedia content presentation having objectionable content and further configured to implement content suppression of the objectionable content;
providing for communication of the multimedia content presentation between the remote content server and the client device;
and
providing for applying the at least one filter to the multimedia content presentation to suppress the objectionable content identified in the at least one filter.

2 more elements

A method for suppressing some multimedia content of a multimedia content presentation supplied from a remote server to a client multimedia content playback device, comprising:

receiving a selection of at least one multimedia content presentation from a plurality of multimedia content presentations;
transmitting filter metadata to the client device, the filter metadata including at least one filter configured to identify a portion of the multimedia content presentation having objectionable content and further configured to implement content suppression of the objectionable content;
and
transmitting the multimedia content presentation from the remote content server to the client device such that application of the filter metadata to the multimedia content presentation will suppress the objectionable content identified in the filter.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Synchronizing filter metadata with a multimedia presentation

Life of this patent

Synchronizing filter metadata with a multimedia presentation

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims42