Success Stories
Canada's V-chip is now the International Standard for Controlling TV Violence

The V-chip is a Canadian success story that has gone around the world. Although television viewers in Canada and the United States are the only ones receiving the full benefit of this technology so far, this British Columbia-born invention continues to draw the attention of presidents and princes from the Americas to Asia.

The V-chip, now properly known under its trademark as the V.gis^TM chip, is the invention of former Simon Fraser University engineering professor Tim Collings. Professor Collings was already disturbed by the level of violence on television but it was the 1989 massacre of 14 female engineering students at the École Polytechnique in Montréal that convinced him something needed to be done to break the cycle of violence in society.

In the wake of this senseless tragedy, he began to look for ways to apply his own engineering skills to the problem. He decided to see if he could do something about the impact of television violence on children.

Around this same time, closed captioning systems were about to be introduced to North American television. Recognizing an opportunity, Professor Collings looked into using the same data packet systems that deliver closed captioning text to carry program ratings information. Not only did the idea work, he found a number of allies, including Keith Spicer, who was then Chairman of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).

With Spicer's encouragement and initial financial backing from Shaw Cable, Professor Collings was able to begin national testing in 1993. The next challenge was to convince broadcasters – whose revenues are determined by the number of people who watch television – that restricting viewership based on the level of violence in program content was a good idea.

An introduction to the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission in the United States proved to be the key. To US legislators and their Canadian counterparts, if it made sense to require technology to decode closed captions for the hearing impaired, then it also made sense to put control over objectionable content in the hands of viewers.

In 1997, Professor Collings awarded the international rights to his invention to Tri-Vision International Ltd., a public company which trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Tri-Vision renamed the technology to "V.gis^TM" and has actively worked with Professor Collings to ensure that all electronics manufacturers in Canada and the United States are properly licensed to use his invention. Professor Collings continues as a Director of Tri-Vision and chairs its Research Committee.

While the first rating system in Canada was content-based, that quickly changed as the US adopted an age-based system. Coupled with the descriptive rating systems that many US broadcasters now also use to alert viewers to violent, sexual or other potentially offensive content, V.gis^TM has been a standard component in new television sets in North America since January 1, 2000.

In addition to the V.gis^TM trademark, Professor Collings holds several Canadian and US patents on the technology itself. So far, more than 20 manufacturers of television sets for the North American market are commercially licensed to use his V.gis^TM chip and it has now begun to invade Europe. In fact, several countries are considering the V.gis^TM as a solution to the problem of excessive levels of violence, sex, coarse language and suggestive dialogue on television.

Due to a recent issue of a Report and Order released by the Federal Communications Commission, "Open V-chip" was mandated with downloadable and upgradeable capabilities. The Report and Order broadened regulations from TVs only to cover all equipment that employs a digital receiver, in effect, expanding the regulation to cover such devices as PDAs and cellular telephones.

While Professor Collings first registered his patent in the US, he is quick to note that it was the Canadian Intellectual Property Office that took him seriously from the outset. He also credits the Industrial Liaison Office at Simon Fraser University and the Technology Development Officers from Canada's Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP) for pointing him in the right direction.

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