Cartoon Filter for Digital Television

Posted by Fraser Lovatt on 10 June 2004 at 10:34 am | Tagged as: Content, Digital TV, Research

British inventors Matthew Roach and Mark Pawlewski have applied for a US patent for a software application that can control the amount of cartoon programming displayed on a digital TV.

You just need to watch any Saturday morning cartoon to learn that the plotless, seizure-inducing fare, no doubt designed to help that cereal sugar rush kick in nicely, consists mainly of a lot of frantic movement, solid colours and fast cuts.

Roach and Pawlewski’s software can detect animation in digital television’s MPEG2 stream, and react accordingly – even switching itself off after a predetermined time, for those parents who can’t be bothered monitoring their own children’s TV dosage.

The software will be featured in next week’s New Scientist magazine.

Detecting Cartoons – A Case Study (Postscript file)