Video Stream Filtering Using Closed Captioning Data
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Users of digital video recorders (DVRs) face inconvenience and inaccuracy when manually fast-forwarding through unwanted content in recorded video streams, such as commercials, due to the lack of automated filtering capabilities.
Innovation Solution
The system processes video streams that include text data, like closed captioning, to identify and index boundaries within the stream, allowing for automated skipping of unwanted portions during playback, using metadata to determine which parts to present or skip.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If manual fast forwarding is used to skip unwanted content, then the user can control playback, but the operation is inconvenient and inaccurate
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary analysis of the video stream during recording to identify and mark commercial segments and content boundaries. This pre-processing creates a structured index that enables accurate automatic skipping during playback without requiring manual user intervention at playback time.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary processing layer between the raw video stream and the user interface. This layer analyzes video content, detects commercial segments using various methods (timing patterns, scene changes, audio analysis), and creates a structured representation that the playback controller uses to enable accurate automatic skipping.
2Ease of operation
If automated filtering is implemented to skip commercials automatically, then convenience is improved, but the system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the video stream into distinct content types (program content, commercials, interstitials) by detecting boundaries and transitions. This segmentation allows the system to apply different handling rules to different segments, simplifying the overall filtering logic while achieving sophisticated automatic playback control.
Solution Approach 2:
The system monitors multiple parameters simultaneously (frame timing, scene change detection, audio characteristics, closed captioning data) to identify commercial segments. By changing and comparing these parameters, the system can distinguish commercials from program content without requiring a single complex identification mechanism.
3Measurement precision
If the system processes video streams with text data to identify boundaries, then filtering precision is improved, but processing time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts and processes text data (closed captioning, subtitles, metadata) during the recording phase to pre-identify content boundaries and commercial segments. This preliminary text-based analysis creates a structured index that significantly improves boundary identification precision during playback without adding processing delays to the user experience.
Data Source
AI summary
Various embodiments of apparatus and/or methods are described for skipping and/or filtering content from a video stream using closed captioning data associated with the video stream. The closed captioning data is parsed using metadata to identify portions of the video stream to skip during presentation, and/or to identify portions of the video stream to output to a user. The portions of the video stream that are to be skipped are filtered from the video stream, and the filtered video stream is presented to a user.