Method and system for advertisement detection and subsitution

• US 20040194130A1
• Filed: 03/01/2004
• Published: 09/30/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 03/07/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: RPX Corporation
• Original Assignee: RPX Corporation
• Inventors: Eldering, Charles A., Igoe, Patrick T., Konig, Richard, Plotnick, Michael A.
• Application Number:
  US10/790,330
• Publication Number:
  US 20040194130A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/32
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/10 Arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast or the distribution
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/14 for monitoring programmes
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/59 of video recognising characters or patterns in general G06F18/00, G06V20/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2143 located in a single building, e.g. hotel, hospital or museum arrangements specially adapted for plural spots in a confined site in broadcast systems H04H20/63; adaptations for transmission by electric cable for domestic distribution in television systems H04N7/106
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23418 involving operations for analysing video streams, e.g. detecting features or characteristics television picture signal circuitry for scene change detection H04N5/147; filtering for image enhancement G06T5/00; methods or arrangements for recognising scenes G06V20/00; arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of video in broadcast systems H04H60/59
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23424 involving splicing one content stream with another content stream, e.g. for inserting or substituting an advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/235 Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2547 Third Party Billing, e.g. billing of advertiser
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25891 being end-user preferences retrieval of video data in a video database based on user preferences G06F16/739; arrangements for recognizing users' preferences H04H60/46; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• 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 21/41415 involving a public display, viewable by several users in a public space outside their home, e.g. movie theatre, information kiosk
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/433 Content storage operation, e.g. storage operation in response to a pause request, caching operations
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4331 Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/435 Processing of additional data, e.g. decrypting of additional data, reconstructing software from modules extracted from the transport stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44008 involving operations for analysing video streams, e.g. detecting features or characteristics in the video stream arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of video in broadcast systems H04H60/59
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44016 involving splicing one content stream with another content stream, e.g. for substituting a video clip
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/458 Scheduling content for creating a personalised stream, e.g. by combining a locally stored advertisement with an incoming stream; Updating operations, e.g. for OS modules ; time-related management operations arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast or during the distribution H04H20/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4755 for defining user preferences, e.g. favourite actors or genre retrieval personalisation and generation of user profiles for the retrieval of video data G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6112 involving terrestrial transmission, e.g. DVB-T
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6125 : involving transmission via Internet transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 : involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8352 : involving content or source identification data, e.g. Unique Material Identifier [UMID]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 : Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8405 : represented by keywords
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 : by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/76 : Television signal recording
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/088 : the inserted signal being digital
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/0887 : for the transmission of programme or channel identifying signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/16 : Analogue secrecy systems; Analogue subscription systems

Abstract

A television signal substitution system that replaces standard video segments with selected replacement portions. Video segments such as advertisements are detected using techniques such as fingerprinting or manual detection. The detected video segment is replaced with a selected replacement portion and output to an output device.

Claims

1. A method for video segment replacement, the method comprising:

receiving an input video signal;

receiving a trigger signal via a computer communications network identifying a segment in the input video signal; and

generating an output video signal comprising the input video signal with the segment replaced with a replacement portion.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the output video signal has a time delay from the input video signal.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising generating the input video signal intact in case of an operations problem.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the segment identified by the trigger signal comprises an advertisement.

5. The method as recited in claim 4, wherein the trigger signal comprises a respective trigger signal channel indications.

6. The method as recited in claim 5, wherein the trigger signal further comprises a time regarding when the advertisement begins or ends on the respective trigger signal channel.

7. The method as recited in claim 5, wherein the generating further comprises:

identifying a current channel of the input video signal; and

matching the current channel with the trigger signal channel, before using the trigger signal.

8. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein the identifying is performed using a channel signal from a tuner.

9. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein the identifying is performed by analyzing VBI data in the input video signal.

10. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein the analyzing VBI data compares VBI data in the input video signal and channel VBI data received via a computer communications network.

11. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the switching signal is generated automatically.

12. The method in claim 11, wherein the switching signal is generated based on fingerprint data.

13. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the switching signal is generated manually.

14. A method for video segment replacement, the method comprising:

receiving an input video signal;

receiving a switching signal identifying a segment in the input video signal; and

generating an output video signal comprising the input video signal with the segment replaced with a replacement portion selected by a local operator.

15. The method as recited in claim 14, wherein the replacement portion is an advertisement targeted to a particular assembled group.

16. The method as recited in claim 15, wherein the replacement portion is an advertisement for products available for in-person purchase by the group at time of output.

17. The method as recited in claim 15, wherein the replacement portion is an advertisement for services available for in-person purchase by the group at time of output.

18. The method as recited in claim 14, wherein the replacement portion is chosen and downloaded by the local operator over a computer communications network.

19. The method as recited in claim 14, wherein the replacement portion is supplied by the local operator on a computer readable storage medium.

20. A method for video segment replacement, the method comprising:

receiving an input video signal;

receiving a manually generated switching signal identifying a segment in the input video signal; and

generating an output video signal comprising the input video signal with the segment replaced with a replacement portion.

21. The method as recited in claim 20, wherein the manually generated switching signal is generated remotely.

22. The method as recited in claim 20, wherein the manually generated switching signal is generated locally.

23. A method for video segment insertion, the apparatus comprising:

inputting an original video signal;

generating a plurality of video signals, each video signal comprising the original video signal with replacement portions substituted for detected segments in the original video signal, the replacement portions selected for particular patrons by using a viewer database; and

distributing each of the plurality video signals to their respective patrons via an associated output device.

24. The method as recited in claim 23, wherein the detected segments are detected manually.

25. The method as recited in claim 23, wherein the replacement portions are selected by a local operator.

26. A method for operating a monitoring station, the method comprising:

detecting a start of an advertisement on a plurality of channels; and

transmitting a trigger signal based on the detecting to a plurality of local viewing stations via a computer communications network.

27. The method as recited in claim 26, further comprising charging a fee to recipients of the transmitted trigger signal.

28. The method as recited in claim 26, wherein the detecting is performed manually.

29. The method as recited in claim 28, wherein after a manual detection, a detection signal is transmitted to a network monitoring station which performs the transmitting a trigger signal.

30. The method as recited in claim 26, wherein the detecting is performed automatically using fingerprint data.

31. The method as recited in claim 30, wherein after an automatic detection, a detection signal is transmitted to a network monitoring station which performs the transmitting a trigger signal.

32. The method as recited in claim 26, further comprising charging a fee to recipients of the transmitting.

33. The method as recited in claim 26, wherein the trigger signal comprises an indicator of a presence of an advertisement, a channel, and a time.

34. A method of detecting advertisements, the method comprising:

detecting an advertisement; and

predicting a length of the advertisement.

35. The method as recited in claim 34, wherein the predicting is determined using an average number of advertisements presenting during a relevant type of programming.

36. The method as recited in claim 34, wherein the predicting is determined using a time of day.

37. The method as recited in claim 34, wherein the predicting is determined using information regarding a current programming channel or network.

38. The method as recited in claim 34, further comprising using the length to determine a number of replacement segments to be substituted.

39. An apparatus for video segment replacement, the apparatus comprising:

an identifying unit identifying a segment in an input video signal;

a replacing unit replacing the segment in the input video signal with a replacement portion to generate an output video signal;

an output unit generating the output video signal; and

a bypass circuit bypassing the replacing unit and generating the input video signal on the output unit in case of an operations problem.

40. The apparatus as recited in claim 39, wherein the bypass circuit further comprises:

a splitter splitting an original video signal into the input video signal and an identical duplicate input video signal;

a selector selecting either the output video signal or the duplicate video signal,

wherein the selector selects the output video signal unless the identifying unit or replacing unit or output unit is unavailable, thereupon selecting the duplicate video signal.

41. An apparatus for video detection and replacement, the apparatus comprising:

an identifying unit receiving a trigger signal via a computer communications network identifying a segment in an input video signal;

a replacing unit replacing the segment in the input video signal with a replacement portion to generate an output video signal; and

an output unit generating the output video signal.

42. An apparatus for video segment replacement, the apparatus comprising:

an identifying unit identifying a segment in an input video signal;

a replacing unit replacing the segment in the input video signal with a locally supplied replacement portion to generate an output video signal; and

an output unit generating the output video signal.

43. The apparatus as recited in claim 42, further comprising a replacement portion storage unit.

44. The apparatus as recited in claim 43, further comprising a local replacement portion interface allowing an operator to transfer a custom selected replacement portion into the replacement portion storage unit.

45. The apparatus as recited in claim 44, wherein the custom selected replacement portion is selected and downloaded via a computer communications network into the replacement portion storage unit.

46. The apparatus as recited in claim 44, wherein the custom selected replacement portion is copied from a recordable medium into the replacement portion storage unit.

47. An apparatus for composite video segment insertion, the apparatus comprising:

a receiving unit receiving a composite video signal comprising a plurality of channels;

a detection and replacement device detecting segments on more than one channel in the composite video signal and replacing the detected segments with respective replacement portions; and

an output unit generating a composite video signal comprising the plurality of channels after the detecting and replacing.

48. The apparatus as recited in claim 47, wherein the detecting is performed manually and remotely.

49. The apparatus as recited in claim 47, wherein the detecting is performed using fingerprint data.

50. An apparatus for video segment insertion, the apparatus comprising:

an input device inputting an original video signal;

a generating apparatus generating a plurality of video signals, each video signal comprising the original video signal with replacement portions substituted for detected segments in the original video signal, the replacement portions selected for particular patrons by using a viewer database; and

a distributing device distributing each of the plurality video signals to their respective patrons via an associated output device.

51. The apparatus as recited in claim 50, wherein the detected segments are detected manually.

52. The apparatus as recited in claim 50, wherein the replacement portions are selected by a local operator.