METHODS AND APPARATUS TO MONITOR AUDIO/VISUAL CONTENT FROM VARIOUS SOURCES

• US 20100172407A1
• Filed: 03/16/2010
• Published: 07/08/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/09/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nielsen Company (US) LLC (RR Donnelley & Sons Company)
• Original Assignee: Nielsen Company (US) LLC (RR Donnelley & Sons Company)
• Inventors: Ramaswamy, Arun
• Granted Patent: US 8,108,888 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 375/240.10
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/37 for identifying segments of broadcast information, e.g. scenes or extracting programme ID
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/58 of audio determination or detection of speech characteristics in general G10L25/00; speech recognition in general G10L15/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/59 of video recognising characters or patterns in general G06F18/00, G06V20/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42204 User interfaces specially adapted for controlling a client device through a remote control device; Remote control devices therefor constructive details of casings for the remote control device H01H9/0235; user interfaces for controlling a tuning device of a television receiver through a remote control H03J9/00; remote control of peripheral devices connected to a television receiver through the remote control device of the television receiver H04B1/205
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/426 Internal components of the client ; Characteristics thereof H04N5/44 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42646 for reading from or writing on a non-volatile solid state storage medium, e.g. DVD, CD-ROM
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/436 Interfacing a local distribution network, e.g. communicating with another STB or one or more peripheral devices inside the home
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4394 involving operations for analysing the audio stream, e.g. detecting features or characteristics in audio streams arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of audio in broadcast systems H04H60/58
• 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 21/44204 Monitoring of content usage, e.g. the number of times a movie has been viewed, copied or the amount which has been watched monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; protecting generic digital content where the protection is independent of the precise nature of the content G06F21/10; arrangements for monitoring the use made of the broadcast services in broadcast systems H04H60/31
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44213 Monitoring of end-user related data arrangements for monitoring the users' behaviour or opinions in broadcast systems H04H60/33
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44222 Analytics of user selections, e.g. selection of programs or purchase activity monitoring of user selections in data processing systems G06F11/34; arrangements for monitoring the user's behaviour or opinions in broadcast systems H04H60/33
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4781 Games
• 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 5/775 between a recording apparatus and a television receiver
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/783 Adaptations for reproducing at a rate different from the recording rate
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/85 on discs or drums
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17327 with deferred transmission or handling of upstream communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8042 involving data reduction
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8205 involving the multiplexing of an additional signal and the colour video signal

Abstract

Methods and apparatus to monitor audio/visual content from various sources are disclosed. An example method to monitor a media content presentation comprises determining whether an audio signal is muted based on whether a number of zero crossings exceeds a threshold, and based on whether the audio signal is determined to be muted, using the audio signal to at least one of determine a source of the media content presentation or determine a special operating mode of the source of the media content presentation. Another example method to monitor a media content presentation comprises determining the source of the media content presentation based on whether the audio signal is determined to be compressed. Yet another example method to monitor a media content presentation comprises determining the source of the media content presentation based on whether the video signal is determined to be compressed.

Claims

1. A method to monitor a media content presentation, the method comprising:

sampling an audio signal to generate a plurality of audio samples;

counting a number of zero crossings associated with the plurality of audio samples;

determining whether the audio signal is muted based on whether the number of zero crossings exceeds a threshold; and

based on whether the audio signal is determined to be muted, using the audio signal to at least one of determine a source of the media content presentation or determine a special operating mode of the source of the media content presentation.

2. A method as defined in claim 1 further comprising determining a volume of the audio signal based on an energy associated with the plurality of audio samples if the number of zero crossings does not exceed the threshold.

3. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein the threshold is a first threshold and further comprising determining a volume of the audio signal based on the energy associated with the plurality of audio samples if the number of zero crossings does not exceed the first threshold and the energy exceeds a second threshold.

4. A method as defined in claim 3 further comprising determining that the audio signal is muted if the number of zero crossings exceeds the first threshold and the energy does not exceed the second threshold.

5. A method as defined in claim 1 further comprising determining that the audio signal is muted if the number of zero crossings exceeds the threshold.

6. A method as defined in claim 1 further comprising using the audio signal to determine the source of the media content presentation if the audio signal is determined to not be muted.

7. A method as defined in claim 1 further comprising using the audio signal to determine the special operating mode of the source of the media content presentation if the audio signal is determined to be muted.

8. A method as defined in claim 7 further comprising determining that the special operating mode corresponds to at least one of an audio mute mode, a pause mode or a trick mode if the audio signal is determined to be muted.

9. A method to monitor a media content presentation, the method comprising:

sampling an audio signal to generate a plurality of audio samples;

generating a plurality of transform coefficients associated with the plurality of audio samples;

examining a subset of the plurality of transform coefficients corresponding to a frequency range exceeding a threshold frequency;

determining whether the audio signal is compressed based on a number of transform coefficients substantially equal to zero in the subset of the plurality of transform coefficients; and

determining a source of the media content presentation based on whether the audio signal is determined to be compressed.

10. A method as defined in claim 9 wherein determining whether the audio signal is compressed comprises determining that the audio signal is compressed if the number of transform coefficients exceeds a threshold number.

11. A method as defined in claim 9 further comprising:

determining that the audio signal is compressed according to a first compression format if the number of transform coefficients exceeds a threshold number; and

determining that the audio signal is compressed according to a second compression format if the number of transform coefficients does not exceed the threshold number and the plurality of transform coefficients substantially match a reference frequency characteristic.

12. A method as defined in claim 11 wherein the first compression format corresponds to AC3 audio compression and the second compression format corresponds to MPEG audio compression.

13. A method as defined in claim 9 wherein determining the source of the media content presentation based on whether the audio signal is determined to be compressed comprises:

determining that the source is a digital source if the audio signal is determined to be compressed; and

determining that the source is an analog source if the audio signal is determined to not be compressed.

14. A method to monitor a media content presentation, the method comprising:

sampling a video signal to generate a plurality of video samples corresponding to a video frame;

generating a plurality of interpixel differences associated with the plurality of video samples;

determining a first power spectral density associated with the plurality of interpixel differences;

determining a second power spectral density based on filtering the first power spectral density;

determining whether the video signal is compressed based on a difference between the first power spectral density and the second power spectral density; and

determining a source of the media content presentation based on whether the video signal is determined to be compressed.

15. A method as defined in claim 14 wherein determining whether the video signal is compressed based on the difference between the first power spectral density and the second power spectral density comprises determining that the video signal is compressed if the first power spectral density is substantially different from the second power spectral density.

16. A method as defined in claim 14 wherein determining the second power spectral density based on filtering the first power spectral density comprises processing the first power spectral density with a median filter.

17. A method as defined in claim 14 further comprising determining that the source is a video game presentation if the first power spectral density is substantially equal to the second power spectral density.

18. A method as defined in claim 14 wherein determining the source of the media content presentation based on whether the video signal is determined to be compressed comprises:

determining that the source is a digital source if the video signal is determined to be compressed; and

determining that the source is an analog source if the video signal is determined to not be compressed.