Content Identifiers

• US 20080133556A1
• Filed: 11/27/2007
• Published: 06/05/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/19/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Original Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Inventors: Conwell, William Y., Rhoads, Geoffrey B., Bradley, Brett A.
• Granted Patent: US 8,095,796 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/634 Query by example, e.g. query by humming
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/68 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/683 using metadata automatically derived from the content

Abstract

Fingerprint data derived from audio or other content can be used as an identifier. One claim recites a method including: obtaining a first fingerprint comprising a first reduced-bit representation of an item of content; obtaining a second fingerprint comprising a second, different reduced-bit representation of the item of content; and identifying, from a database, information associated with the item of content utilizing both the first fingerprint and the second fingerprint. Another claim recites a method including: obtaining at least one fingerprint from a mobile user device; obtaining geographical information associated with the mobile user device; determining a set of fingerprints based on the geographical information; and determining one or more fingerprints from the set of fingerprints based on the at least one fingerprint. Of course other combinations are provided and claimed as well.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

obtaining a first fingerprint comprising a first reduced-bit representation of an item of content;

obtaining a second fingerprint comprising a second, different reduced-bit representation of the item of content; and

identifying, from a database, information associated with the item of content utilizing both the first fingerprint and the second fingerprint.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the first fingerprint corresponds to a first portion of the item of content.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the second fingerprint corresponds to a second, different portion of the item of content.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the item of content comprises at least audio or video.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the first fingerprint or the second fingerprint is derived from acoustically significant portions of the item of content.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the first fingerprint or the second fingerprint is derived from transform domain coefficients after transformation of the item of content into a transform domain.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the transformation utilizes a discrete cosine transform (DCT).

8. A computer readable medium comprising instructions to perform the method of claim 1.

9. A method comprising:

obtaining content comprising a header, the header including a first fingerprint derived from the content itself;

deriving a second fingerprint from the content itself;

comparing the first fingerprint with the second fingerprint;

reaching a conclusion regarding the content based at least in part on said act of comparing.

10. A method comprising:

obtaining content;

searching a header associated with the content to obtain an identifier derived from the content itself;

only if an identifier is not found, computing a fingerprint from the content itself, the fingerprint comprising a reduced-bit representation of the content.

11. A method comprising:

obtaining content segregated into portions corresponding to compression;

calculating two or more fingerprints each respectively corresponding to a different portion of the content;

storing the two or more fingerprints in a data structure for identification of the content.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the two or more fingerprints stored in the data structure are each associated with its particular portion of the content.

13. The method of claim 11 further comprising embedding each fingerprint in its respective portion of the content with digital watermarking.

14. The method of claim 11 wherein the content comprises at least audio or video.

15. A method comprising:

obtaining at least one fingerprint from a mobile user device;

obtaining geographical information associated with the mobile user device;

determining a set of fingerprints based on the geographical information; and

determining one or more fingerprints from the set of fingerprints based on the at least one fingerprint.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the one or more fingerprints determined from the set of fingerprints correspond to one or more content items.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the one or more content items comprise at least audio or video.

18. The method of claim 15 wherein the mobile user device comprises a cellular phone.

19. A computer readable medium comprising instructions to perform the method of claim 15.

20. A computer readable medium comprising instructions to perform the method of claim 17.