Apple granted patent that might allow skipping over annoying content

[dgstorm]

How many times have you found yourself in front of the TV or media box being bored to death by the content being broadcasted and asking yourself when is something interesting going to come up? Apple has been thinking of this issue as well and recently has been granted a patent with the title "Seamless switching between radio and local media" – which indicates that Cupertino is on its way to resolving the issue.

The idea behind the concept is that your machine should be able to “know” what sort of media you like or dislike. If it comes across something you might disapprove of it will just skip over it and replace it with something appropriate. This might include skipping over annoying ads, but this feature is already available via AdBlock. Apparently Apple has something more in mind, something grand. Cupertino might be thinking of building a global and universal database in which to store likes and dislikes. From the patent background:

A user may not like a particular song broadcast by a radio station, or may not like a particular segment of a talk radio station (e.g., the user does not like the topic or guest of the segment). As another example, a user may not be interested in content originally generated by sources other than the media source (e.g., advertisement content). Because the user has no control over the media broadcast, the user can typically only tune to a different media broadcast, or listen to or consume the broadcast content that is not of interest.”

Could this new invention bring together live television and on-demand special package television programs?

By Radu

Source: United States Patent: 8249497

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