Commercial detector
First Claim
1. A commercial detecting method comprising the steps of receiving a plurality of broadcast signals, comparing said received signals, and if one or more of the received signals differs from the other received signals by more than a preset amount, generating a signal indicating presence of a commercial.
7 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The invention detects commercials interrupting television programs by comparing signals in a comparator (16) received from multiple regions (1, 6, 11) of a network. If one or more of the received signals differs from the other received signals by more than a preset amount, generating a signal via output (17) indicating the presence of a commercial. Because different commercials are inserted in different regions of a network, the signals are generally very similar during program transmission and very different during commercial transmission.
-
Citations
24 Claims
- 1. A commercial detecting method comprising the steps of receiving a plurality of broadcast signals, comparing said received signals, and if one or more of the received signals differs from the other received signals by more than a preset amount, generating a signal indicating presence of a commercial.
- 2. A commercial detecting method comprising the steps of receiving a plurality of broadcast signals from at least two geographical areas, comparing said received signals, and if one or more of the received signals differs from the other received signals by more than a preset amount, generating a signal indicating presence of a commercial.
- 11. A commercial detector comprising a plurality of broadcast signal receivers and a comparator adapted to compare said received signals and generate a signal indicating presence of a commercial if one or more of said received signals differs from the other received signals by more than a preset amount.
- 12. A commercial detector comprising a plurality of broadcast signal receivers, at least one of which receives a broadcast signal from a geographical area remote from the other receivers, and a comparator adapted to compare said received signals and generate a signal indicating presence of a commercial if one or more of said received signals differs from the other received signals by more than a preset amount.
-
23. A commercial detector substantially as hereinbefore described, with reference to the accompanying drawings.
-
24. A commercial detecting method substantially as hereinbefore described, with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Specification