Systems and methods for control of media access based on crowd-sourced access control data and user-attributes
View Patent ↗Systems and methods for controlling media access based on crowd-sourced access control data and user attributes are provided. Crowd-sourced data is received from several sources in order to determine what media assets consumers are accessing, and catalog attributes of the media assets and attributes of the accessing consumers. A user-attribute-based access control function, such as a parental control feature of an interactive media guide, uses this data to control access to media assets provided by the system. When a user attempts to access a media asset, the access control function determines whether the media asset has an attribute similar to assets accessed by other users having one or more user-attributes similar to those of the accessing user. If the media asset is not sufficiently similar to assets accessed by other sufficiently-similar users, access to the media asset will be blocked unless an appropriate access code is entered.
1. A method for providing crowd-sourced media access control, the method comprising:
receiving, at a user equipment device, a request from a user to access a media asset;
retrieving a media attribute associated with the media asset;
determining whether access to media assets associated with the media attribute was denied for two or more users of a plurality of users; and
in response to determining that access to the media assets associated with the media attribute was denied for the two or more users of the plurality of users:
retrieving an access control threshold associated with the user, wherein the access control threshold is a percentage of users for which access was denied;
generating a statistical representation of a fraction of the plurality of users for which access to the media assets associated with the media attribute was denied;
comparing the access control threshold to the statistical representation; and
denying access to the media asset for the user when the access control threshold matches the statistical representation.
2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
retrieving a user attribute associated with the user; and
wherein the plurality of users are associated with the retrieved user attribute.
3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the user attribute is an age, age group, gender, profession, citizenship, marital status, security level, or priority level.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the media attribute is a title, genre, media rating, content keyword, performer, or release date.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining whether access to media assets associated with the media attribute was denied comprises:
retrieving, from a database, data associated with the media attribute and the plurality of users; and
comparing the retrieved data with a threshold value to determine if access was denied for the plurality of users.
6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining whether access to the media assets was denied by a ratings-based access control.
7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
in response to determining that access to the media assets associated with the media attribute was not denied, generating for display the requested media asset.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein denying access to the media asset comprises generating for display a prompt for the user to enter a passcode.
9. A system for providing crowd-sourced media access control, the system comprising:
user input interface circuitry configured to:
receive a request from a user to access a media asset;
storage circuitry configured to:
store a media attribute associated with the media asset; and
processing circuitry configured to:
retrieve the media attribute;
determine whether access to media assets associated with the media attribute was denied for two or more users of a plurality of users; and
in response to determining that access to the media assets associated with the media attribute was denied for the two or more users of the plurality of users;
retrieve an access control threshold associated with the user, wherein the access control threshold is a percentage of users for which access was denied;
generate a statistical representation of a fraction of the plurality of users for which access to the media assets associated with the media attribute was denied;
compare the access control threshold to the statistical representation; and
deny access to the media asset for the user when the access control threshold matches the statistical representation.
10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the storage circuitry is further configured to:
store a user attribute associated with the user; and
wherein the plurality of users is associated with the user attribute.
11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the user attribute is an age, age group, gender, profession, citizenship, marital status, security level, or priority level.
12. The system of claim 10 , wherein the media attribute is a title, genre, media rating, content keyword, performer, or release date.
13. The system of claim 10 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:
retrieve, from storage circuitry, data associated with the media attribute and the plurality of users; and
compare the retrieved data with a threshold value to determine if access was denied for the plurality of users.
14. The system of claim 10 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:
determine whether access to the media assets was denied by a ratings-based access control.
15. The system of claim 10 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:
in response to determining that access to the media assets associated with the media attribute was not denied, generate for display the requested media asset.
16. The system of claim 10 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to generate for display a prompt for the user to enter a passcode.