METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR FILTERING AND INSERTING CONTENT INTO A PRESENTATION STREAM USING SIGNATURE DATA

• US 20100158484A1
• Filed: 05/04/2009
• Published: 06/24/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/24/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dish Technologies LLC (Dish Network Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Echostar Technologies LLC (Echostar Corporation)
• Inventors: Kummer, David A., Casagrande, Steven Michael
• Granted Patent: US 8,588,579 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 386/239
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/10 Indexing; Addressing; Timing or synchronising; Measuring tape travel
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/28 by using information signals recorded by the same method as the main recording G11B27/22 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4351 involving reassembling additional data, e.g. rebuilding an executable program from recovered modules
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4542 Blocking scenes or portions of the received content, e.g. censoring scenes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8133 specifically related to the content, e.g. biography of the actors in a movie, detailed information about an article seen in a video program
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/765 Interface circuits between an apparatus for recording and another apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/91 Television signal processing therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8063 using time division multiplex of the PCM audio and PCM video signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8205 involving the multiplexing of an additional signal and the colour video signal

Abstract

Described herein are methods and apparatus for the identification of locations in a presentation stream based on metadata associated with the presentation stream. Locations within a presentation stream are identified using signature data associated with the presentation stream. The identified locations within a presentation stream may be utilized to identify boundaries of segments within the presentation stream, such as segments of a show and interstitials (e.g., commercials) of the show. The identified portions of a presentation stream may then be utilized for filtering segments of content during presentation. Additionally, supplemental content is identified and inserted into the presentation stream during presentation.

Claims

6-1. The method of claim 1, wherein the first audio/video stream comprises an audio/video stream, the signature comprises a search portion of audio data of the audio/video stream, and wherein processing a portion of the first audio/video stream within the search boundaries further comprises:

processing the audio data of the audio/video stream within the search boundaries to identify the video location corresponding with the portion of the audio data.

11. A method for processing a stream of data, the method comprising:

providing a first presentation stream including at least one segment of a show and at least one interstitial of the show;

receiving location information referencing a location within the first presentation stream;

receiving a signature of a portion of the first presentation stream corresponding with the location, the signature identifying a transition in the video data from a first luminance value to a second luminance value

receiving at least one off-set specified relative to the location;

computing average luminance values for a plurality of frames of the video data of the first presentation stream;

processing the average luminance values to identify the transition from the first luminance value to the second luminance value based on the signature, the transition corresponding with the location within the first presentation stream;

processing the first presentation stream to identify boundaries of the segment of the show based on the identified location and the off-set;

identifying supplemental content to present in association with the segment of the show; and

outputting a second presentation stream for presentation on a presentation device, the second presentation stream including the segment of the show and the supplemental content.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein receiving the location information, the signature and the at least one off-set further comprise:

receiving the location information, in association with the signature and the off-set, separately from the first presentation stream.

13. An apparatus comprising:

a communication interface that receives a first presentation stream including at least one segment of a show and at least one interstitial of the show, and that receives location information referencing a location within the first presentation stream, a signature of a portion of the first presentation stream corresponding with the location and at least one off-set specified relative to the location, the signature identifying a transition in the video data from a first luminance value to a second luminance value;

control logic communicatively coupled to the communication interface configured to;

compute average luminance values for a plurality of frames of the video data of the first presentation stream;

process the average luminance values to identify the transition from the first luminance value to the second luminance value based on the signature, the transition corresponding with the location within the first presentation stream;

process the first presentation stream to identify boundaries of the segment of the show based on the identified location and the off-set;

identify supplemental content to present in association with the segment of the show; and

an audio/video interface that outputs a second presentation stream for presentation by a presentation device, the second presentation stream including the segment of the show and the supplemental content.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the communication interface receives the location information, in association with the signature and the off-set, separately from the first presentation stream.

15. A digital video recorder comprising:

a communication interface that receives a first audio/video stream including at least one segment of a show, at least one interstitial of the show and closed captioning data and that receives location information referencing the closed captioning data to identify a video location within the first audio/video stream, a signature of a portion of the first audio/video stream associated with the video location and at least one first off-set specified relative to the video location;

a storage medium;

control logic communicatively coupled to the communication interface and the storage medium that;

processes the first audio/video stream to identify boundaries of the segment of the show based on the signature, the location information and the first off-set;

identifies supplemental content for presentation in association with the segment of the show; and

an audio/video interface communicatively coupled to the control logic that outputs the second audio/video stream for presentation by a display device, the second audio/video stream including the segment of the show and the supplemental content.

16. The digital video recorder of claim 15, wherein the control logic identifies the supplemental content based on user viewing characteristics.

17. The digital video recorder of claim 15, wherein the control logic identifies the supplemental content based on characteristics of the segment of the show.

18. The digital video recorder of claim 15, wherein the control logic identifies the supplemental content based on characteristics of the interstitial.

19. The digital video recorder of claim 15, wherein the control logic processes the closed captioning data to identify search boundaries within the first audio/video stream based on the location information and processes a portion of the first audio/video stream within the search boundaries to identify the video location based on the signature.

20. The digital video recorder of claim 19, wherein the first audio/video stream comprises an audio/video stream, the signature comprises a search portion of audio data of the audio/video stream, and wherein the control logic processes the audio data of the audio/video stream within the search boundaries to identify the video location corresponding with the portion of the audio data.

21. The digital video recorder of claim 19, wherein the signature comprises a portion of video data of the first audio/video stream, and wherein the control logic processes the video data of the first audio/video stream within the search boundaries to identify the video location corresponding with the portion of the video data.

22. The digital video recorder of claim 15, wherein the location information includes at least one text string contained in the closed captioning data that is associated with the video location, beginning and ending offsets, associated with the text string, that are specified relative to the video location, the beginning and ending offsets identifying beginning and ending locations of the at least one segment, and wherein the control logic is configured to:

process the closed captioning data to identify an intermediate location within the first audio/video stream corresponding with presentation of the text string;

process the first audio/video stream to identify the video location based on the signature;

determine an adjustment offset between the intermediate location and the video location;

adjust the beginning and ending offsets based on the adjustment offset; and

identify the beginning location and the ending location of the at least one segment in the first audio/video stream based the adjusted beginning and ending offsets.

23. The digital video recorder of claim 22, wherein the signature comprises a window of signature audio data, and wherein the control logic is configured to:

perform a first operation to subtract the window of the signature data from a first portion of audio data of the presentation stream, the first portion of the audio data corresponding with the intermediate location;

determine whether the first operation results in a value within a specified tolerance;

perform a second operation to subtract the window of the signature data from a second portion of the audio data responsive to determining that the first operation results in the value larger than the specified tolerance, the second portion of the audio data corresponding with the video location; and

determine the adjustment offset based on a presentation time difference of the first portion and the second portion of the audio data.

24. The digital video recorder of claim 22, wherein the signature comprises a window of signature video data, and wherein the control logic is configured to:

perform a first operation to subtract the window of the signature data from a first portion of video data of the presentation stream, the first portion of the video data corresponding with the intermediate location;

determine whether the first operation results in a value within a specified tolerance;

perform a second operation to subtract the window of the signature data from a second portion of the video data responsive to determining that the first operation results in the value larger than the specified tolerance, the second portion of the video data corresponding with the video location; and

determine the adjustment offset based on a presentation time difference of the first portion and the second portion of the video data.