Detection of media links in broadcast signals

• US 20020059633A1
• Filed: 09/19/2001
• Published: 05/16/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 01/07/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nielsen Company (US), LLC
• Original Assignee: Nielsen Company (US), LLC
• Inventors: Feininger, William A., Smithpeters, Craig M., Harkness, David H., Lu, Daozheng
• Granted Patent: US 7,421,723 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/108
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/14 for monitoring programmes
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/28 Arrangements for simultaneous broadcast of plural pieces of information
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/93 which locates resources of other pieces of information, e.g. URL [Uniform Resource Locator]
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 2201/90 characterised by the use of signatures
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/37 for identifying segments of broadcast information, e.g. scenes or extracting programme ID
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/40 for identifying broadcast time
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/43 for identifying broadcast channels
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/56 Arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition covered by groups H04H60/29-H04H60/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44204 Monitoring of content usage, e.g. the number of times a movie has been viewed, copied or the amount which has been watched monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; protecting generic digital content where the protection is independent of the precise nature of the content G06F21/10; arrangements for monitoring the use made of the broadcast services in broadcast systems H04H60/31
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6582 Data stored in the client, e.g. viewing habits, hardware capabilities, credit card number arrangements where receivers interact with the broadcast H04H20/38
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8352 involving content or source identification data, e.g. Unique Material Identifier [UMID]

Abstract

A detection apparatus includes a tuner tuned to the program and a meter coupled to the tuner and arranged to detect content ancillary information from the program tuned by the tuner. The content ancillary information may be a media link, closed captioning information, or the like. The meter may also be arranged to extract a broadcast signature from the program. A comparator compares the broadcast signature to a reference signature selected from a library of reference signatures based upon the content ancillary information. Broadcast signatures from unknown programs may be clustered at least partially on the basis of the content ancillary information.

Claims

1. A detection apparatus for the detection of a media link embedded in a program comprising:

a tuner tuned to the program; and

,

a meter coupled to the tuner and arranged to detect the media link embedded in the program tuned by the tuner.

2. The detection apparatus of claim 1 wherein the tuner comprises a scanning tuner.

3. The detection apparatus of claim 2 wherein the scanning tuner tunes to a plurality of channels, and wherein the meter is arranged to detect media links from programs carried in the tuned channels.

4. The detection apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a program identifier, wherein the program identifier is arranged to identify the program directly from the media link.

5. The detection apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a program identifier, wherein the program identifier is arranged to identify the program by accessing a content provider.

6. The detection apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a program identifier, wherein the program identifier is arranged to received a manual identification of the program.

7. The detection apparatus of claim 1 wherein the media link is a URL.

8. The detection apparatus of claim 1 wherein the media link is a code referenced to a URL.

9. The detection apparatus of claim 1 wherein the media link is a trigger.

10. A data acquisition system for the acquisition of identifying data from a program comprising:

a tuner tuned to the program; and

,

a meter coupled to the tuner and arranged to capture first and second program identifying datum identifying the program tuned by the tuner, wherein the first program identifying datum is a media link embedded in the program, and wherein the second program identifying datum is a program identifying datum other than a media link.

11. The data acquisition system of claim 10 wherein the tuner comprises a scanning tuner.

12. The data acquisition system of claim 11 wherein the scanning tuner tunes to a plurality of channels, wherein the meter is arranged to capture media links from programs in the tuned channels, and wherein the meter is arranged to capture second program identifying data identifying programs in the tuned channels.

13. The data acquisition system of claim 10 further comprising a program identifier arranged to identify the program from the first and/or second program identifying data.

14. The data acquisition system of claim 13 wherein the program identifier is arranged to identify the program by comparing the first and/or second program identifying data to corresponding first and/or second reference identifying data.

15. The data acquisition system of claim 10 wherein the second program identifying datum is a signature extracted from the program.

16. The data acquisition system of claim 10 wherein the data acquisition system is arranged to keep the second program identifying datum only if the meter fails to acquire the first program identifying datum.

17. The data acquisition system of claim 10 further comprising a program identifier, wherein the program identifier is arranged to identify the program directly from the media link.

18. The data acquisition system of claim 10 further comprising a program identifier, wherein the program identifier is arranged to identify the program by accessing a content provider.

19. The data acquisition system of claim 10 further comprising a program identifier, wherein the program identifier is arranged to receive a manual identification of the program.

20. The data acquisition system of claim 10 wherein the media link is a URL.

21. The data acquisition system of claim 10 where in the media link is a co de referenced t o a URL.

22. The data acquisition system of claim 10 wherein the media link is a trigger.

23. The data acquisition system of claim 10 wherein the meter is arranged to capture the second program identifying datum from the program only in the event that the meter is unable to capture the first program identifying datum from the program.

25. The program identification system of claim 24 wherein the content ancillary information is a media link.

26. The program identification system of claim 25 wherein the media link is a URL.

27. The program identification system of claim 25 wherein the media link is a code referenced to a URL.

28. The program identification system of claim 25 wherein the media link is a trigger.

29. The program identification system of claim 24 wherein the content ancillary information is closed captioning information.

30. The program identification system of claim 24 wherein, if the broadcast signature does not have associated content ancillary information, the comparator is arranged to compare the broadcast signature to a reference signature selected from a library of reference signatures based upon a hash code.

31. The program identification system of claim 24 wherein the reference signature includes an identification of the program.

32. The program identification system of claim 24 wherein the broadcast signature includes the channel and a time at which the broadcast signature is extracted.

33. The program identification system of claim 32 wherein the reference signature includes an identification of the program.

35. The method of claim 34 wherein the comparison of broadcast signatures comprises the following:

comparing the one broadcast signature to others of the broadcast signatures not having associated therewith any content ancillary information.

36. The method of claim 34 wherein the one broadcast signature is a first broadcast signature, and wherein the comparison of broadcast signatures comprises the following:

comparing a second broadcast signature to others of the broadcast signatures not having content ancillary information associated therewith, wherein the second broadcast signature also does not have content ancillary information associated therewith.

37. The method of claim 34 wherein the content ancillary information is a media link.

38. The method of claim 37 wherein the media link is a URL.

39. The method of claim 37 wherein the media link is a code referenced to a URL.

40. The method of claim 37 wherein the media link is a trigger.

41. The method of claim 34 wherein the content ancillary information is closed captioning information.

42. The method of claim 34 further comprising comparing the one broadcast signature to a reference signature, wherein the reference signature is selected from a library of reference signatures based on the content ancillary information.

43. The method of claim 42 wherein the content ancillary information is a media link.

44. The method of claim 43 wherein the media link is a URL.

45. The method of claim 43 wherein the media link is a code referenced to a URL.

46. The method of claim 43 wherein the media link is a trigger.

47. The method of claim 42 wherein the content ancillary information is closed captioning information.

24. A program identification system comprising:

a tuner tunable to at least one of a plurality of channels;

a meter coupled to the tuner, wherein the meter is arranged to detect content ancillary information from a program carried in a channel tuned by the tuner and to extract a broadcast signature from the program; and

,

a comparator arranged to compare the broadcast signature to a reference signature, wherein the reference signature is selected from a library of reference signatures based upon the content ancillary information.

34. A method of clustering signatures comprising the following:

a) extracting broadcast signatures from programs;

b) detecting content ancillary information from the programs; and

,

c) comparing one of the broadcast signatures having content ancillary information associated therewith only to others of the broadcast signatures having associated therewith substantially the same content ancillary information.