公开(公告)号：SG70095A1

公开(公告)日：2000-01-25

申请号：SG1998001809

申请日：1998-07-16

Applicant: IBM

Inventor： MALKIN PETER KENNETH ,  SCHLOSS ROBERT JEFFERY ,  SNIBLE EDWARD CHARLES ,  WILLEBEEK-LEMAIR MARC HUBERT ,  YU PHILIP SHI-LUNG

IPC: H04N7/16 ,  H04N7/173 ,  H04N21/258 ,  H04N21/2668 ,  H04N21/45 ,  H04N21/454 ,  H04N21/4545 ,  H04N21/478 ,  H04N21/6405 ,  G06F19/00

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.