Shawn E Graham

US Patent:

8108891, Jan 31, 2012

Filed:

Apr 21, 1999

Appl. No.:

09/295935

Inventors:

Polly Stecyk - Fountain Valley CA, US
Edwin Jou - Irvine CA, US
Shawn Graham - Irvine CA, US

Assignee:

Mitsubishi Electric Visual Solutions America, Inc. - Irvine CA

International Classification:

H04N 7/16
H04N 7/173

US Classification:

725 29, 725 25, 725 28, 709219, 348460

Abstract:

Systems, methods and apparatuses are provided for allowing a user to supervise personal exposure to a program exhibited by a consumer electronics device, such as, e. g. , a television system. The consumer electronics device includes “V-chip” circuitry that analyzes a program signal and either blocks or passes the program signal based on certain content and time based criteria. In this connection, a user can program the “V-chip” circuitry with the content- and time-based criteria in the form of one or more content-based specifications, which specify a rating and/or a subject matter category, and finite time range specifications, which are associated with the content-based specifications. The “V-chip” circuitry receives one or more content-based indicators, which are indicative of a rating and/or a subject matter category of the program, and a reference time from an external source, such as the program signal. The “V-chip” circuitry compares the content-based indicators with the content-based specifications when the reference time falls within one of the finite time ranges.