Patexia seeks prior art for US Patents 7,543,318 (US ‘318), 7,577,970 (US ‘970), and 6,898,799 (US ‘799), in addition to US Patents 7,526,784 (US ‘784) and 8,117,282 (US ‘282). Together, the patents allegedly describe a method of automatically filtering certain excerpts from a multimedia presentation in real-time by the audio/video decoder, as well as an ability by the user to control this automatic filtering process by disabling certain excerpts from being filtered.

The method accomplishes this by using a set of navigation data objects that the decoder uses to control its actions and includes the following variables:

• an indicator to mark the excerpt of multimedia content to be filtered, which can include multiple formats such as start and stop timestamp or frame, start + duration from start, or end - duration from end
• a filtering action to be taken, which can include reframing (e.g. cropping), fading, and/or skipping the excerpt
• a description of the content that is being filtered, such as violence, sex and nudity, language, etc
• a configuration identifier to associate the object to a specific device configuration (e.g. an excerpt should never be reframed when presented on a high-definition widescreen display)

When utilizing these navigational objects, the decoder:

• decodes the encoded audio/video multimedia presentation as normal
• monitors its current position while decoding the multimedia presentation
• notices when the current position reaches an excerpt marked by a navigational object
• executes the filtering action in the navigational object
• continues decoding as normal
• outputs the multimedia presentation, with the filtered modification, to the display

Finally, software on the decoder can display all the navigational objects for the user to review. During this review, the user can select navigational objects to be disabled, so that when the decoder begins processing the multimedia presentation, these selected navigational objects are ignored.

This Contest is related to the Loading Audio/Video Filtering Information Contest. Similar references are allowed; however, the two Contests focus on different features and have different questions. Both Contests have the same list of Known References.

Figure 3A. Overview of the Loading of Filtering Information

Questions

1. Was the reference filed or published before October 23rd, 2000?
2. Does the reference describe a media player with a decoder that allows a user to automatically filter multimedia content based on a navigational object with an indicator to identify an excerpt of the content and a filtering action to be taken during the excerpt?
3. Does the indicator used to identify the excerpt include either a start and stop marker (such as a timestamp or frame counter), or a marker with a duration to or from it (such as a start plus 5 minutes, or end minus 24 frames)?
4. Does the possible filtering action include skipping the multimedia excerpt, reframing (such as cropping), or fading the content?
5. Does the navigational object include an additional variable that includes information about the content to be filtered (such as violence, sex and nudity, language, or other explicit content)?
6. Does the navigational object include a configuration identifier to associate it to a specific device configuration?
7. Does the media player filter content by monitoring the current multimedia position of the decoder, noticing when the decoder reaches an excerpt, executing the filtering action, and outputting the multimedia content with the filtered modifications to a display?
8. Does the media player use a user interface to display all the navigational objects to the user?
9. Does the media player allow the user to disable selected navigational objects so that their actions are not executed by the decoder?

Rules and Submission Guidelines

Submissions for this Contest may include multiple references. When submitting, please categorize your reference as:

• a main reference answering the majority of the questions
• or a supporting reference that answers question 1 with the appropriate date, answers a fewer number of questions, and is filed in support of a main reference

Please see the Prior Art Style Guidelines for more information regarding main versus supporting references