Method And System For Filtering Advertisements In A Media Stream

• US 20090007195A1
• Filed: 06/26/2007
• Published: 01/01/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Data Services Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Beyabani, Syed Zafar
• Granted Patent: US 9,438,860 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/86
• 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 21/458 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 21/4663 involving probabilistic networks, e.g. Bayesian networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4756 for rating content, e.g. scoring a recommended movie
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/163 by receiver means only

Abstract

A system and method may include receiving a media stream via a media delivery network, the media stream comprising a plurality of media segments, measuring a plurality of characteristics of a media segment of the plurality of media segments, and assigning a characteristics score to each of the plurality of characteristics. The system and method may further include applying a filter to the media segment to generate a media segment score based on the characteristics scores and to compare the media segment score with a threshold, and outputting a filtered media stream from the filter.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a media stream via a media delivery network, the media stream comprising a plurality of media segments;

processing a plurality of characteristics of a media segment of the plurality of media segments;

assigning a characteristics score to each of the plurality of characteristics;

applying a filter to the media segment to generate a media segment score based on the characteristics scores and to compare the media segment score with a threshold; and

outputting a filtered media stream from the filter.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein applying the filter removes the media segment from the media stream if the media segment score does not meet or exceed the threshold.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the media segment score indicates a prediction of whether the media segment is an advertisement media segment.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the filter comprises a Bayesian filter.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the characteristics scores indicates whether a blank media segment preceded the media segment.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the characteristics scores indicates whether the media segment includes a call sign.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the characteristics scores indicates whether the media segment includes closed captioning (CC) text.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the characteristics scores indicates audio traits of the media segment.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the characteristics scores indicates video traits of the media segment.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the characteristics scores indicates a time elapsed since a previous advertisement media segment.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the characteristics scores indicates whether schedule data from an Electronic Program Guide (EPG) is available.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising identifying a beginning and an ending of the media segment based on a changes in the characteristics scores.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising storing pointers indicating the beginning and the ending of the media segment.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the media segment score is generated based on an equal weighting of the characteristics scores.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the media segment score is generated based on unequal weighting of the characteristics scores.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

causing display of the filtered media stream;

receiving feedback associated with the displayed filtered media stream; and

updating the filter based on the feedback.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein updating the filter comprises updating a weighting of the characteristics scores relative to one another.

18. A computer readable media comprising code to perform the acts of the method of claim 1.

19. An apparatus comprising:

a media tracker module communicatively coupled to a network, the media tracker module to;

receive a media stream via the network, the media stream comprising a plurality of media segments,

examine a plurality of characteristics of a media segment of the plurality of media segments, and

assign a characteristics score to each of the plurality of characteristics, and

a filter module communicatively coupled to the media tracker module, the filter module to filter the media segment by generating a media segment score based on the characteristics scores and by comparing the media segment score with a threshold, wherein the filter module includes the media segment in a filtered media stream if the media segment score meets or exceeds the threshold.

20. A system comprising:

means for receiving a media stream via a media delivery network, the media stream comprising a plurality of media segments;

means for examining a plurality of characteristics of a media segment of the plurality of media segments;

means for assigning a characteristics score to each of the plurality of characteristics;

means for applying a filter to the media segment to generate a media segment score based on the characteristics scores and to compare the media segment score with a threshold; and

means for outputting a filtered media stream from the filter.