System for preventing advertising removal from digital television bitstreams

• US 20060101486A1
• Filed: 11/05/2004
• Published: 05/11/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/05/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Cable Television Laboratories Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Cable Television Laboratories Incorporated
• Inventors: Weber, Joseph W., Kar, Mukta Lal
• Application Number:
  US10/982,607
• Publication Number:
  US 20060101486A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/32
• 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 21/262 Content or additional data distribution scheduling, e.g. sending additional data at off-peak times, updating software modules, calculating the carousel transmission frequency, delaying a video stream transmission, generating play-lists scheduling strategies for dispatcher in multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/4881; arrangements for scheduling broadcast services or broadcast-related services H04H60/06; flow control in packet networks H04L47/10; establishing a time schedule or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/62
• 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 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02

Abstract

The present system for preventing the removal of advertising from digital television bitstreams detects the various advertising-specific factors, including: the time-wise predictability of advertisements, anomalies in the bitstream caused by the advertisement insertion process, and differences in the characteristics of advertisements versus the digital media content, then eliminates these characteristics from the digital media content bitstream. By eliminating the advertising-specific characteristics, there are no identifiable discontinuities in the digital media content bitstream that can be used to locate advertisements and therefore enable their removal from the digital media content bitstream.

Claims

1. A system for preventing advertising removal from digital television bitstreams which comprise advertisements merged into a digital media content bitstream, which digital television bitstreams are transmitted from a broadcast television system to consumer devices, said system for preventing advertising removal comprising:

means for detecting at least one advertising-specific characteristic that identifies a presence of an advertisement in said digital television bitstream that is transmitted from said broadcast television system to consumer devices; and

means for expunging at least one said advertising-specific characteristic.

2. The system for preventing advertising removal from digital television bitstreams of claim 1 wherein said means for detecting at least one advertising-specific characteristic comprises:

means for detecting an anomaly in said digital television bitstream caused by the advertisement insertion process.

3. The system for preventing advertising removal from digital television bitstreams of claim 1 wherein said means for detecting at least one advertising-specific characteristic comprises:

means for detecting differences in the bitrate of digital streams advertisements versus the digital media content.

4. The system for preventing advertising removal from digital television bitstreams of claim 3 wherein said means for expunging said at least one advertising-specific characteristic comprises:

means, responsive to a presence of at least one advertising-specific characteristic comprising a change in bitrate at the transitions, for eliminating the change in bitrate during transitions.

5. The system for preventing advertising removal from digital television bitstreams of claim 1 wherein said means for detecting at least one advertising-specific characteristic comprises:

means for detecting differences in the screen resolution of advertisements versus the digital media content.

6. The system for preventing advertising removal from digital television bitstreams of claim 5 wherein said means for expunging said at least one advertising-specific characteristic comprises:

means, responsive to a presence of at least one advertising-specific characteristic comprising a change in screen resolution at the transitions, for eliminating the change in screen resolution during transitions.

7. The system for preventing advertising removal from digital television bitstreams of claim 1 wherein said means for detecting at least one advertising-specific characteristic comprises:

means for detecting differences in the aspect ratio of digital streams advertisements versus the digital media content.

8. The system for preventing advertising removal from digital television bitstreams of claim 7 wherein said means for expunging said at least one advertising-specific characteristic comprises:

means, responsive to a presence of at least one advertising-specific characteristic comprising a change in aspect ratio at the transitions, for eliminating the change in aspect ratio during transitions.

9. The system for preventing advertising removal from digital television bitstreams of claim 1 wherein said means for detecting at least one advertising-specific characteristic comprises:

means for detecting aural or visual signatures at the transitions between content and advertisement.

10. The system for preventing advertising removal from digital television bitstreams of claim 9 wherein said means for expunging said at least one advertising-specific characteristic comprises:

means, responsive to a presence of at least one aural or visual signature comprising a significant number of black frames at the transitions and the muting of the audio during transitions, for eliminating the black frames and muting of audio during transitions.

11. The system for preventing advertising removal from digital television bitstreams of claim 1 wherein said means for detecting at least one advertising-specific characteristic comprises:

means for detecting differences in the characteristics of advertisements versus the digital media content.

12. The system for preventing advertising removal from digital television bitstreams of claim 11 wherein said means for expunging at least one said advertising-specific characteristic comprises:

means, responsive to a presence of increased audio volume during an advertisement, for reducing said audio volume of said advertisement to correspond to an audio volume of said digital program content.

13. The system for preventing advertising removal from digital television bitstreams of claim 1, further comprising:

means for detecting time-wise predictability of advertisements.

14. The system for preventing advertising removal from digital television bitstreams of claim 13 wherein said means for expunging at least one said advertising-specific characteristic comprises:

means for randomizing the time at which said advertisements are merged into said digital media content bitstream.

15. A method for preventing advertising removal from digital television bitstreams which comprise advertisements merged into a digital media content bitstream, which digital television bitstreams are transmitted from a broadcast television system to consumer devices, said system for preventing advertising removal comprising:

detecting at least one advertising-specific characteristic that identifies the presence of an advertisement in said digital television bitstream that is transmitted from said broadcast television system to consumer devices; and

expunging at least one said advertising-specific characteristic.

16. The method for preventing advertising removal from digital television bitstreams of claim 15 wherein said step of detecting at least one advertising-specific characteristic comprises:

detecting an anomaly in said digital television bitstream caused by the advertisement insertion process.

17. The method for preventing advertising removal from digital television bitstreams of claim 15 wherein said step of detecting at least one advertising-specific characteristic comprises:

detecting differences in the bitrate of digital streams advertisements versus the digital media content.

18. The method for preventing advertising removal from digital television bitstreams of claim 17 wherein said step of expunging said at least one advertising-specific characteristic comprises:

eliminating, in response to a presence of at least one advertising-specific characteristic comprising a change in bitrate at the transitions, the change in bitrate during transitions.

19. The method for preventing advertising removal from digital television bitstreams of claim 15 wherein said step of detecting at least one advertising-specific characteristic comprises:

detecting differences in the screen resolution of advertisements versus the digital media content.

20. The method for preventing advertising removal from digital television bitstreams of claim 19 wherein said step of expunging said at least one advertising-specific characteristic comprises:

eliminating, in response to a presence of at least one advertising-specific characteristic comprising a change in screen resolution at the transitions, the change in screen resolution during transitions.

21. The method for preventing advertising removal from digital television bitstreams of claim 15 wherein said step of detecting at least one advertising-specific characteristic comprises:

detecting differences in the aspect ratio of digital streams advertisements versus the digital media content.

22. The method for preventing advertising removal from digital television bitstreams of claim 21 wherein said step of expunging said at least one advertising-specific characteristic comprises:

eliminating, in response to a presence of at least one advertising-specific characteristic comprising a change in aspect ratio at the transitions, the change in aspect ratio during transitions.

23. The method for preventing advertising removal from digital television bitstreams of claim 15 wherein said step of detecting at least one advertising-specific characteristic comprises:

detecting aural or visual signatures at the transitions between content and advertisement.

24. The method for preventing advertising removal from digital television bitstreams of claim 23 wherein said step of expunging said at least one advertising-specific characteristic comprises:

eliminating, in response to a presence of at least one aural or visual signature comprising a significant number of black frames at the transitions and the muting of the audio during transitions, the black frames and muting of audio during transitions.

25. The method for preventing advertising removal from digital television bitstreams of claim 15 wherein said step of detecting at least one advertising-specific characteristic comprises:

detecting differences in the characteristics of advertisements versus the digital media content.

26. The method for preventing advertising removal from digital television bitstreams of claim 25 wherein said step of expunging at least one said advertising-specific characteristic comprises:

reducing, in response to a presence of increased audio volume during an advertisement, said audio volume of said advertisement to correspond to an audio volume of said digital program content.

27. The method for preventing advertising removal from digital television bitstreams of claim 15, further comprising:

detecting time-wise predictability of advertisements.

28. The method for preventing advertising removal from digital television bitstreams of claim 27 wherein said step of expunging at least one said advertising-specific characteristic comprises:

randomizing the time at which said advertisements are merged into said digital media content bitstream.