On-the-fly pattern recognition with configurable bounds

A system for filtering digital content, the system comprising:

• a user interface that receives user input regarding at least one bound that defines a condition under which to terminate a content filter;
• a processor that executes instructions stored in memory, wherein execution of the instructions by the processor:
• configures a pattern matching engine associated with the processing device based on the received bound for searching content received at the processing device,
• executes the configured pattern matching engine to generate a score indicating a likelihood that a content file belongs to at least one of a plurality of content categories known to the pattern matching engine,
• terminates the content filter when the condition of the received bound is met,
• classifies the content file under the at least one content category based on the score meeting one or more thresholds associated with the at least one content category;
• and
• processes the content file based on the classification under the at least one content category.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, having embodied thereon instructions executable by at least one processor to perform a method for filtering digital content, the method comprising:

• receiving user input at a processing device, the user input regarding at least one bound that defines a condition under which to terminate a content filter;
• configuring a pattern matching engine associated with the processing device based on the received bound for searching content received at the processing device;
• executing the configured pattern matching engine to generate a score indicating a likelihood that a content file belongs to at least one of a plurality of content categories known to the pattern matching engine;
• terminating the content filter when the condition of the received bound is met;
• classifying the content file under the at least one content category based on the score meeting one or more thresholds associated with the at least one content category;
• and
• processing the content file based on the classification under the at least one content category.