METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SELECTIVELY RENDERING A CONTENT ITEM
A content item comprising a plurality of segments is selectively rendered by selecting at least one segment of a content item having objectionable content, step ( 205 ); issuing an alert prior to rendering said selected at least one segment, step ( 207 ); and rendering said selected at least one segment if a user does not indicate an objection against having said selected at least one segment rendered, step ( 213 ).
1 . A method for selectively rendering a content item, the content item comprising a plurality of segments, the method comprising the steps of:
selecting ( 205 ) at least one segment of a content item having objectionable content;
issuing ( 207 ) an alert prior to rendering said selected at least one segment;
rendering ( 213 ) said selected at least one segment if a user does not indicate an objection against having said selected at least one segment rendered.
2 . A method according to claim 1 , wherein the step of rendering ( 213 ) said selected at least one segment comprises rendering said at least one segment if no predetermined user input is received.
3 . A method according to claim 2 , wherein the step of rendering ( 213 ) said selected at least one segment comprises rendering said selected at least one segment if no predetermined user input is received within a predetermined time interval after issue of the alert.
4 . A method according to claim 1 , wherein the step of rendering ( 213 ) said selected at least one segment comprises rendering said at least one segment if a user indicates a desire to have said selected at least one segment rendered.
5 . A method according to claim 1 , wherein the step of issuing ( 207 ) an alert comprises at least one of: blurring visual and/or audio content of said content item, freezing render of said content item, issuing a visual and/or audio warning, animating visual content of said content item and changing audio characteristics.
6 . A method according to claim 1 , wherein the step of selecting segments having objectionable content comprising the step of:
determining objectionable content based upon the time of day.
7 . A method according to claim 1 , wherein the step of selecting segments having objectionable content comprising the step of:
determining objectionable content based upon user preferences.
8 . A method according to claim 1 , wherein a plurality of content items is rendered over a plurality of channels, the step of issuing an alert comprises the step of:
issuing an alert prior to rendering said selected at least one segment upon selection of a channel rendering said at least one segment.
9 . computer program product comprising a plurality of program code portions for enabling a programmable device to carry out the method according to claim 1 .
10 . Apparatus ( 100 ) for selectively rendering a content item, the content item comprising a plurality of segments, the apparatus ( 100 ) comprising:
an analyzer ( 107 ) for selecting at least one segment of a content item having objectionable content; and
a controller ( 113 ) arranged to issue an alert prior to rendering said selected at least one segment and enable render of said selected at least one segment if a user does not indicate an objection against having said selected at least one segment rendered.
11 . Apparatus according to claim 10 , wherein the apparatus further comprises:
an extractor ( 105 ) for extracting at least one feature of each segment of the content item; and
the analyzer ( 107 ) is arranged to analyze said extracted at least one feature as to whether the extracted at least one feature is objectionable and select segments having at least one objectionable feature.
12 . Apparatus according to claim 11 , wherein the apparatus further comprises:
a storage device ( 109 ) for storing a plurality of predefined objectionable features.