Method and apparatus for selectively altering a televised video signal in real-time

Abstract

The method and apparatus operates in a television receiver to identify unwanted broadcast segments, such as commercial advertisements, of a television signal in real-time for the purpose of selectively altering the television display during each unwanted segment. A signature pattern associated with each segment of the television signal is detected and compared to stored signature patterns representative of selected segments such as commercial advertisement segments. If the signature pattern matches one of the stored signature patterns, the segment is thereby immediately identified as being one of the selected segments and is processed in real-time to mute or otherwise alter the television signal during the segment. If the signature pattern of the segment does not match any of the stored signature patterns, the segment is analyzed to determine whether the segment is nevertheless a selected segment and, if so, its signature pattern is stored along with the stored signature patterns.

Description

RELATED APPLICATION [0001] This is a continuation-in-part of co-pending application Ser. No. 09 / 452,040 filed Nov. 30, 1999, which is a continuation of application Ser. No. 08 / 742,983 filed Nov. 1, 1996, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,002,443.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] 1. Field of the Invention [0003] The invention relates to television signal processing systems and in particular to television signal processing systems for detecting selected segments of a television signal such as commercial advertisement segments. [0004] 2. Description of Related Art [0005] It has long been a desire of many television viewers to have a system which automatically detects selected segments of a television signal such as commercial advertisements or other unwanted broadcast segments in real-time during a television broadcast for the purposes of, for example, muting the audio portion of the television broadcast during the unwanted broadcast material. Although a wide variety of techniques have been develop...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

"The invention provides a method and apparatus to identify and mute selected segments of a television broadcast signal in real-time. The method detects a signature pattern at the beginning of a segment and compares it to stored signatures to quickly identify and mute the segment. The system can also detect and mute entire groups of commercial advertisements and other unwanted broadcast segments. The method uses pre-determined event markers, such as black frames or colored frames, to extract a signature from the segment. The technical effect of the invention is to provide a more efficient and effective way to mute or alter selected segments of a television broadcast signal."

Problems solved by technology

Although a wide variety of techniques have been developed for detecting selected segments of television signals, heretofore there have been no sufficiently effective and economical systems that automatically operate in real-time for muting the television signal during the selected segments or for similar purposes.

Although the systems of U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,333,091 and 5,455,630 and PCT application PCT / US94 / 00223 are very effective in skipping over commercial advertisements and other unwanted broadcast material during the playback of a recorded broadcast program on a videotape, the systems do not operate in real-time during a received broadcast.

However, the system does not operate in real-time to detect commercial advertisements within a received broadcast signal.

Commercial advertisements may each be one minute or perhaps more in length thereby requiring a significant amount of storage for temporarily storing portions of the broadcast signal and thereby requiring a system which is not sufficiently economical for most purposes.

As with the previously described system, the systems of U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,750,052 and 4,782,401 do not operate in real-time and are not sufficiently economical for most purposes.

Moreover, none of the aforementioned systems for detecting broadcast segments during the recording of a television program operate in real-time for the purpose of, for example, muting the audio during commercial advertisements or other broadcast segments.

One significant problem with this system is that a human operator must first detect program segments to be eliminated.

Also, a significant amount of data processing is required to establish and compare the signatures in a reliable manner.

Although U.S. Pat. No. 4,750,213 may represent an improvement over U.S. Pat. No. 4,420,769, it shares the disadvantage that a human operator must detect program segments to be eliminated.

One disadvantage of the system is that the detection of commercial advertisements based upon an activity level is likely to be unreliable for many broadcasts and, even when the system does correctly detect a commercial advertisement, that detection does not occur until 8 seconds into the commercial advertisement.

None of the techniques described above, however, are effective for reliably and automatically detecting broadcast segments in real-time without the need of a human operator.

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