Apparatus and method for media detection and replacement

• US 10,531,143 B2
• Filed: 01/12/2018
• Issued: 01/07/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Howcroft, Jerald R., Raftelis, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Hance, Robert J
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bantamoi, Anthony
• Application Number:
  US15/869,302
• Publication Number:
  US 20180139483A1
• Time in Patent Office: 725 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2343 involving reformatting operations of video signals for distribution or compliance with end-user requests or end-user device requirements video transcoding H04N19/40; media packet handling at the source H04L65/762
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2358 for generating different versions, e.g. for different recipient devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2665 Gathering content from different sources, e.g. Internet and satellite
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2668 Creating a channel for a dedicated end-user group, e.g. insertion of targeted commercials based on end-user profiles information retrieval from the Internet by querying with filtering and personalisation G06F16/9535; arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast H04H20/10; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; adaptation of message content in packet-switching networks H04L51/063
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4394 involving operations for analysing the audio stream, e.g. detecting features or characteristics in audio streams arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of audio in broadcast systems H04H60/58
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4396 by muting the audio signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/440236 by media transcoding, e.g. video is transformed into a slideshow of still pictures, audio is converted into text
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4542 Blocking scenes or portions of the received content, e.g. censoring scenes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8106 involving special audio data, e.g. different tracks for different languages
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8455 involving pointers to the content, e.g. pointers to the I-frames of the video stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a server having a controller configured to identify audio content of interest associated with an audio portion of a media program. Alternate audio content is identified. Responsive to a detection of the audio content of interest within a textual representation of the audio portion, an indicator including a pointer is inserted into the media program. The pointer points to the alternate audio content and is inserted at a start point of the occurrence of the audio content of interest within the media program. The alternate audio content is retrieved based on the pointer and substituted with the alternate audio content beginning at the start point. Other embodiments are disclosed.

Claims

1. A server, comprising:

a processing system including a processor; and

a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processing system, facilitate performance of operations, comprising;

receiving a batch file feed, wherein the batch file feed comprises a plurality of media programs identified by equipment of a viewer;

receiving a selection from the equipment of the viewer for replacement content for a selected audio portion, wherein the replacement content is stored separately from the plurality of media programs;

detecting media content of interest within an audio portion of a media program in the plurality of media programs associated with the selected audio portion; and

inserting an indicator into the audio portion of the media program at a start point of the media content of interest within the media program in response to the detecting of the media content of interest, wherein the indicator comprises a pointer that enables retrieval of the replacement content based on the pointer to insert the replacement content at the pointer to generate modified media content, wherein the inserting of the pointer comprises placing the pointer at the start point of the media content of interest, and wherein the inserting the indicator occurs before a packetization of the modified media content for transport to a media processor for presentation at the equipment of the viewer.

2. The server of claim 1, wherein the server operates in an interactive television network, wherein the interactive television network is selected from a group consisting of internet protocol television, interactive cable television and interactive satellite television, and wherein the replacement content is read from a database based on the pointer.

3. The server of claim 1, wherein the audio portion comprises one of an audio stream, a text stream or both, and wherein the media content of interest is selected from a group consisting of audio content, textual content associated with the audio content, still image content, video content and combinations thereof.

4. The server of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

re-packetizing the media program comprising replacement alternate audio-related content; and

storing information associated with the media content of interest.

5. The server of claim 4, wherein the information associated with the media content of interest comprises a first identifier associated with the media program, a first time associated with detection of the media content of interest, a second time associated with replacement of the media content of interest, and a second identifier indicating successful replacement of the media content of interest.

6. The server of claim 1, wherein the detecting the media content of interest is based on a textual representation of the audio portion.

7. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a server comprising a processor, a batch file feed, wherein the batch file feed comprises a plurality of media programs identified by equipment of a viewer;

receiving, by the server, a selection from the equipment of the viewer for replacement content for a selected audio portion;

detecting, by the server, media content of interest within an audio portion of a media program in the plurality of media programs associated with the selected audio portion; and

inserting, by the server, an indicator into the audio portion of the media program at a start point of the audio portion of the media content of interest within the media program in response to the detecting of the media content of interest,

wherein the indicator comprises a pointer that enables retrieval of the replacement content, wherein the inserting of the pointer comprises placing the pointer at the start point of the audio portion of the media content of interest, wherein the audio portion of the media content of interest is replaced to generate modified media content, and wherein the modified media content is generated before a packetization of the modified media content for transport to the equipment of the viewer.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising monitoring the plurality of media programs based on a schedule.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising separating the audio portion into one of an audio stream, a text stream or both, and wherein the media content of interest and the replacement content is selected from a group consisting of audio content, video content, still image content, text content, text content associated with the audio content and combinations thereof.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein voice recognition is applied to the audio stream to obtain a textual representation of the audio stream, and wherein the media content of interest is determined by the server based on the textual representation of the audio stream, and, wherein the replacement content is stored separately from the plurality of media programs.

11. The method of claim 7, further comprising storing, by the server, the replacement content, and re-packetizing, by the server, the media program comprising the replacement content.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein the replacement content is identified by utilizing a device selected from a group consisting of personal computer, a mobile device and a set-top-box.

13. A non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium, comprising executable instructions, which when executed by a processor, facilitate performance of operations comprising:

receiving a batch file feed, wherein the batch file feed comprises a plurality of media programs identified by a computing device of a viewer;

receiving a selection from the computing device of the viewer for replacement content for a selected audio portion, wherein the replacement content is stored separately from the plurality of media programs;

detecting media content of interest within an audio portion of a media program in the plurality of media programs associated with the selected audio portion; and

inserting an indicator into the audio portion of the media program at a start point of the audio portion of the media content of interest within the media program in response to the detecting of the media content of interest, wherein the indicator comprises a pointer that enables retrieval of the replacement content, wherein the audio portion of the media content of interest is replaced with the replacement content to create modified media content, and wherein the modified media content is created prior to a packetization of the modified media content for transport to the computing device for presentation to the viewer.

14. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise substituting, during presentation of the media program, the media content of interest with the replacement content beginning at the start point.

15. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise separating the audio portion into one of an audio stream, a text stream or both.

16. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise applying voice recognition to the audio stream to obtain a textual representation of the audio stream, and wherein the detecting that the media program contains the media content of interest is based on the textual representation of the audio stream.

17. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the operations further comprise retrieving the replacement content based on the pointer, and wherein substituting of the media content of interest with the replacement content begins at the start point.

18. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise:

replacing audio-related content of the media program, wherein the audio-related content correlates to the media content of interest.

19. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise storing an identifier indicating that the modified media content was created successfully.

20. The non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the indicator comprising the pointer is inserted into an audio stream of the media program.