EMBEDDED TAGS IN A MEDIA SIGNAL

• US 20090294538A1
• Filed: 05/28/2008
• Published: 12/03/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/28/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications USA Incorporated (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications USA Incorporated (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Claesson, Jonas, Wihlborg, Anders
• Application Number:
  US12/128,397
• Publication Number:
  US 20090294538A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 235/454
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/93 which locates resources of other pieces of information, e.g. URL [Uniform Resource Locator]
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 2201/50 characterised by the use of watermarks
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/48 for recognising items expressed in broadcast information
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/59 of video recognising characters or patterns in general G06F18/00, G06V20/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23892 involving embedding information at multiplex stream level, e.g. embedding a watermark at packet level
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4126 The peripheral being portable, e.g. PDAs or mobile phones
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4223 Cameras H04N23/00 takes precedence
• 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 21/4722 for requesting additional data associated with the content
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4758 for providing answers, e.g. voting
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6582 Data stored in the client, e.g. viewing habits, hardware capabilities, credit card number arrangements where receivers interact with the broadcast H04H20/38
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/858 Linking data to content, e.g. by linking an URL to a video object, by creating a hotspot
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/76 Television signal recording
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/772 the recording apparatus and the television camera being placed in the same enclosure
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8205 involving the multiplexing of an additional signal and the colour video signal

Abstract

A mobile device may capture video of a media signal, parse frames of the captured video, and identify a tag within one or more of the frames of the captured video, where the tag includes a machine-readable representation of information. The mobile device may also analyze the tag to determine the information included in the tag, and present particular information based on the information included in the tag.

Claims

1. A method performed by a mobile device, comprising:

capturing video of a media signal;

parsing frames of the captured video;

identifying a tag within one or more of the frames of the captured video, where the tag includes a machine-readable representation of information;

analyzing the tag to determine the information included in the tag; and

presenting particular information based on the information included in the tag.

2. The method of claim 1, where the mobile device includes a video capturing device;

and

where capturing video of the media signal includes;

activating the video capturing device, and

recording, by the video capture device, a video of the media signal.

3. The method of claim 1, where the media signal is played on a video display device;

and

where capturing video of the media signal includes;

recording a video of the media signal as the media signal is played on the video display device.

4. The method of claim 1, where identifying the tag within the one or more frames of the captured video includes:

locating a blank frame from among the frames of the captured video, and

detecting the tag within the blank frame.

5. The method of claim 1, where identifying the tag within the one or more frames of the captured video includes:

locating a blank area within one of the frames of the captured video, where the blank area is smaller than an entire area of the one of the frames, and

detecting the tag within the blank area.

6. The method of claim 1, where identifying the tag within the one or more frames of the captured video includes:

analyzing a series of the frames of the captured video to identify changes in a visual aspect, and

detecting the tag based on the changes in the visual aspect.

7. The method of claim 1, where the information included in the tag includes an address;

and

where presenting the particular information includes;

accessing a web page corresponding to the address, and

displaying the web page as the particular information.

8. The method of claim 1, where the information included in the tag includes a message that contains text;

and

where presenting the particular information includes displaying the text of the message as the particular information.

9. The method of claim 1, where identifying the tag within the one or more frames of the captured video includes identifying a plurality of tags within the one or more frames of the captured video;

and

where presenting the particular information includes displaying, as the particular information, a selectable list of information regarding each of the plurality of tags.

10. A mobile device, comprising:

a video capturing device to capture video of a media signal presented on a video display device; and

processing logic to;

identify frames of the captured video,

identify a tag within one or more of the frames of the captured video, where the tag includes a machine-readable representation of information,

analyze the tag to determine the information included in the tag, and

perform a particular function based on the information included in the tag.

11. The mobile device of claim 10, where the information included in the tag includes a telephone number;

and

when performing the particular function, the processing logic is configured to;

initiate a telephone call based on the telephone number, or

send a text message based on the telephone number.

12. The mobile device of claim 10, where the tag encodes one or more of an address, a keyword, or a message.

13. The mobile device of claim 10, where when identifying the tag within the one or more frames of the captured video, the processing logic is configured to:

locate a blank frame or a semi-transparent frame from among the frames of the captured video, and

detect the tag within the blank frame or the semi-transparent frame.

14. The mobile device of claim 10, where when identifying the tag within the one or more frames of the captured video, the processing logic is configured to:

locate a blank area within one of the frames of the captured video, where the blank area is smaller than an entire area of the one of the frames, and

detect the tag within the blank area.

15. The mobile device of claim 10, where when identifying the tag within the one or more frames of the captured video, the processing logic is configured to:

analyze a series of the frames of the captured video to identify changes in a visual aspect, and

detect the tag based on the changes in the visual aspect.

16. The mobile device of claim 10, where the information included in the tag includes a keyword;

where the mobile device further includes a display; and

where when performing the particular function, the processing logic is configured to;

cause a search to be performed based on the keyword,

obtain search results based on the search, and

present the search results on the display.

17. The mobile device of claim 10, where the tag is associated with an object visible within the media signal on the video display device;

where the mobile device further includes a display; and

where when performing the particular function, the processing logic is configured to present information regarding the object on the display.

18. A mobile device, comprising:

means for capturing video of a media signal that is being displayed on a video display device;

means for identifying frames of video within the captured video;

means for detecting a tag within one or more of the frames, where the tag includes a machine-readable representation of information;

means for analyzing the tag to determine the information included in the tag; and

means for outputting data based on the information included in the tag.

19. The mobile device of claim 18, where the means for identifying the frames of video within the captured video includes:

means for processing the video of the media signal continuously in approximately real time to identify the frames of video while the video of the media signal is being captured.

20. The mobile device of claim 18, where the means for detecting the tag within the one or more frames includes:

means for analyzing a series of the frames of the captured video to identify changes in a visual aspect, and

means for detecting the tag based on the changes in the visual aspect.