The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 13, 2001
Filed:
Jul. 22, 1997
Peter Kenneth Malkin, Ardsley, NY (US);
Robert Jeffrey Schloss, Briarcliff Manor, NY (US);
Edward Charles Snible, New York, NY (US);
Marc Hubert Willebeek-LeMair, Yorktown Heights, NY (US);
Philip Shi-Lung Yu, Chappaqua, NY (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A method and system for manipulating or modifying identifiable objects in a standard broadcast or Internet-based multimedia stream according to a control specification and a content specification. Viewers and/or organizations can independently specify acceptable levels of content on multiple dimensions to satisfy the content specification while minimizing the filtering or blocking to the viewers. A “fuzz ball” control specification is provided for masking some portion of a video frame. Several fuzz ball specifications can be overlaid to address multidimensional content specifications or rating systems. The manipulation of the multimedia stream can take place at the client (set-top box or computer), intermediate node, the content server or a combination thereof. Proxy servers can modify content specifications for outgoing requests, enabling organizations to specify intranet-wide policies. Multicasting can be supported by using a single stream delivered to multiple clients, each modifying the video using a different specification. The specification to facilitate modification can be done at different granularity levels: the video, a group of frames, or individual frame level and can also be time-based. Various protocols can be used to provide the content and/or control specification, including the VBI of a standard broadcast, PICS, RTSP and MPEG protocols.