96results about "Broadcast systems characterised by signatures" patented technology

Methods and apparatus to collect audience information associated with a media presentation are described herein. In an example method, the presence of one or more other media metering devices is monitored by a first media metering device associated with a media presentation device. A monitoring operation of the first media metering device is varied based on a presence of the one or more other media metering devices.

Content segmentation, categorization and identification methods are described. Content tracking approaches are illustrated that are suitable for large scale deployment. Time-aligned applications such as multi-language selection, customized advertisements, second screen services and content monitoring applications can be economically deployed at large scales. A client performs fingerprinting, scene change detection, audio turn detection, and logo detection on incoming video and gathers database search results, logos and text to identify and segment video streams into content, promos, and commercials. A learning engine is configured to learn rules for optimal identification and segmentation at each client for each channel and program. Content sensed at the client site is tracked with reduced computation and applications are executed with timing precision. A user interface for time-aligned publishing of content and subsequent usage and interaction on one or more displays is also described.

A media work may be associated with an action by (a) extracting features from the media work, (b) determining an identification of the media work, based on the features extracted, using a sub-linear time search, such as an approximate nearest neighbor search for example, and (c) determining an action based on the identification of the media work determined. The media work may be an audio work. The features extracted from the work may include (A) a frequency decomposition of a signal of the audio work, (B) information samples of the audio work, (C) average intensities of sampled windows of the audio work, and / or (D) information from frequencies of the audio work.

Systems and methods are provided for gathering audience measurement data relating to receipt of and / or exposure to audio data by an audience member. Audio data is monitored to detect a monitoring code. Based on detection of the monitoring code, a signature characterizing the audio data is extracted.

The invention discloses an interactive method based on multimedia programs, a terminal, a server and a system and belongs to the technical field of networks. The interactive method comprises the steps of obtaining at least segment image information of the multimedia programs in the multimedia program playing process; sending the segment image information, wherein the segment image information are used for being matched with corresponding multimedia programs; receiving interactive information corresponding to the multimedia program information; outputting an interactive interface and performing interaction with the multimedia programs based on interactive operations of the interactive interface. The operations are simple and convenient, and the interactive efficiency is improved.

An audience measurement system generates signatures of unknown pieces of content viewed by panel members, and generates multiplexed reference signatures of known pieces of content. The signatures of the unknown pieces of content are stored and transmitted to a central processing site, where they are compared with the reference signatures for their identification. A signature comparator finds matches between the signatures of the unknown and the known contents.

An audio portion of content, such as an audio stream, is associated with a multimedia program. A server receives an audio fingerprint and a program identifier from a network and associates the audio fingerprint with an audio identifier. A request packet including the program identifier is transmitted over the network to request program guide information associated with the program identifier. The program data including the program guide information is received from the network and metadata associated with the audio identifier and the program data are transmitted onto the network. A user device initiates a request for the metadata by using an audio fingerprint and the program identifier.

A computerized method for engaging a user of a mobile computer system, The mobile computer system may be connectible to a server over a wide area network. An audio signal of ambient audio is autonomously sampled in the vicinity of the mobile computer system to capture one or more audio samples of the audio signal. The multiple samples of the audio signal are autonomously sampled without requiring any interaction from the user, thus avoiding an input from the user to capture each of the samples. The audio sample may be processed to extract an audio signature of the audio sample. The audio signature may be compared with multiple previously stored reference audio signatures. Upon matching the audio signature with at least one reference audio signature a matched reference audio signature may be produced.

Audience measurement systems having fixed and portable monitoring devices are provided. Embodiments of the audience measurement system may be suitable for monitoring programs viewed and / or listened to by one or more members of a sample household. The fixed monitoring device may be associated with a particular media device, for example, in the household's home and monitor a received broadcast signal and / or a state of the media device to extract information enabling a received program and / or station to be identified. The portable monitoring device may comprise a receiver for receiving sound of a program emitted by any nearby media device; a data extractor for extracting data from the received sound to enable a program and / or station to be identified. Either a first or a second communicator may be operable to transmit a device present signal in the vicinity of its respective monitoring device, and / or detect the said signal.

Systems and methods for navigating hypermedia using multiple coordinated input / output device sets. Disclosed systems and methods allow a user and / or an author to control what resources are presented on which device sets (whether they are integrated or not), and provide for coordinating browsing activities to enable such a user interface to be employed across multiple independent systems. Disclosed systems and methods also support new and enriched aspects and applications of hypermedia browsing and related business activities.

Information about an audio or video file played on a device is provided by (a) extracting features from the audio or video file, (b) communicating the features to a database, and (c) receiving the information about the audio or video file from the database. The information might include a song title, an album title, and / or a performer name. The information might include a title of a video work, a director of the video work, and / or names of performers in the video work. The information might be rendered on an output of the device. The information might be stored (e.g., persistently) locally on the device.

Hashes are short summaries or signatures of data files which can be used to identify the file. Hashing multimedia content (audio, video, images) is difficult because the hash of original content and processed (e.g. compressed) content may differ significantly. The disclosed method generates robust hashes for multimedia content, for example, audio clips. The audio clip is divided (12) into successive (preferably overlapping) frames. For each frame, the frequency spectrum is divided (15) into bands. A robust property of each band (e.g. energy) is computed (16) and represented (17) by a respective hash bit. An audio clip is thus represented by a concatenation of binary hash words, one for each frame. To identify a possibly compressed audio signal, a block of hash words derived therefrom is matched by a computer (20) with a large database (21). Such matching strategies are also disclosed. In an advantageous embodiment, the extraction process also provides information (19) as to which of the hash bits are the least reliable. Flipping these bits considerably improves the speed and performance of the matching process.

Method and apparatus for identifying broadcast digital audio signals include structure and / or function whereby the digital audio signal is provided to processing structure which is configured to (i) identify a program-identifying code in the received digital audio signal, (ii) identify a program-identifying code in a decompressed received digital audio signal, (iii) identify a feature signature in the received digital audio signal, and (iv) identify a feature signature in the decompressed received digital audio signal. Preferably, such processing structure is disposed in a dwelling or a monitoring site in an audience measurement system, such as the Nielsen TV ratings system.

A content segmentation, categorization and identification method on consumer devices (clients) is described. Methods for content tracking are illustrated that are suitable for large scale deployment and applications such as broadcast monitoring, novel content publishing and interaction. Time-aligned (synchronous) applications such as multi-language selection, customized advertisements, second screen services and content monitoring applications can be economically deployed at large scales. The client performs fingerprinting, scene change detection, audio turn detection, and logo detection on incoming video and gathers database search results, logos and text to identify and segment video streams into content, promos, and commercials. A learning engine is configured to learn rules for optimal identification and segmentation at each client for each channel and program. Content sensed at the client site is tracked with reduced computation and applications are executed with timing precision. A method and user interface for time-aligned publishing of content and subsequent usage and interaction on one or more displays is described.

There is provided a method of allocating optimal payload space in a watermarking system. The method includes steps of: (a) obtaining identification parameters relating to programme data content (PC), said identification parameters including at least one or more user identifiers (UID) and one or 5 more programme content identifiers (CID); (b) storing said identification parameters (UID, CID) in one or more databases (30); (c) generating one or more transaction numbers (nTR) capable of being uniquely mapped to corresponding identification parameters (UID, CID) stored in the one or more 10 databases (30); and (d) generating watermark information for carrying said one or more transaction numbers (nTR) and embedding said watermark information as an optimized payload (OPL) into said programme data content (PC) to generate corresponding watermarked data content (WPC).

Apparatus, system and method for performing an action such as accessing supplementary data and / or executing software on a device capable of receiving multimedia are disclosed. After multimedia is received, a monitoring code is detected and a signature is extracted in response thereto from an audio portion of the multimedia. The ancillary code includes a plurality of code symbols arranged in a plurality of layers in a predetermined time period, and the signature is extracted from features of the audio of the multimedia. Supplementary data is accessed and / or software is executed using the detected code and / or signature.