METHODS AND APPARATUS TO DETECT COMMERCIAL ADVERTISEMENTS ASSOCIATED WITH MEDIA PRESENTATIONS

• US 20110157475A1
• Filed: 06/30/2010
• Published: 06/30/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Original Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Inventors: Wilson, Scott, Schwerer, Ron, Heffernan, Ronan, Wright, David H.
• Granted Patent: US 8,925,024 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/700
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/46 Extracting features or characteristics from the video content, e.g. video fingerprints, representative shots or key frames
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/49 Segmenting video sequences, i.e. computational techniques such as parsing or cutting the sequence, low-level clustering or determining units such as shots or scenes
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/14 for monitoring programmes
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/375 Commercial
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/48 for recognising items expressed in broadcast information
• 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 21/4394 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 21/4402 involving reformatting operations of video signals for household redistribution, storage or real-time display details of conversion of video standards at pixel level H04N7/01; video transcoding H04N19/40; adapting incoming signals to the display format of the display terminal G09G5/005; media handling at the source in data packet switching networks H04L65/764
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/147 Scene change detection

Abstract

Methods and apparatus to detect commercial advertisements associated with media presentations are disclosed. An example method involves receiving a video frame and detecting a change in box-formatting between the video frame and a subsequent video frame. A transition between the video frame and the subsequent video frame is indicated as a commercial advertisement transition based on the detected change in box-formatting.

Claims

1. A method to detect a commercial transition associated with a media presentation, the method comprising:

detecting a change in box-formatting between a first video frame and a subsequent video frame; and

indicating the transition between the first video frame and the subsequent video frame as a commercial transition based on the detected change in box-formatting.

2. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the box-formatting is at least one of a pillarbox formatting, a letterbox formatting, or a windowbox formatting.

3. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein detecting the change in the box-formatting comprises monitoring the video frame and the subsequent video frame for an appearance or disappearance of screen filler areas, wherein the screen filler areas are located at least at top and bottom video frame portions or right and left video frame sides.

4. A method as defined in claim 3, wherein monitoring the first video frame and the subsequent video frame for the appearance or disappearance of the screen filler areas comprises using at least one of an edge detection machine vision process or a blob detection machine vision process to detect the appearance or disappearance of the screen filler areas.

5. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the first video frame and the subsequent video frame are reconstructed from a media transmission.

6. A method as defined in claim 5, wherein the box-formatting is part of the first video frame or the subsequent video frame during transmission of the first video frame or the subsequent video frame in the media transmission.

7. A method as defined in claim 5, wherein the media transmission is at least one of a television transmission, an internet-streamed video, or a video on demand video.

8. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the commercial advertisement transition indicates at least one of a transition between two commercial advertisements or a transition between a commercial advertisement and a media program.

9-24. -24. (canceled)

25. A method to detect a commercial transition associated with a media presentation, the method comprising:

determining an amount of audio randomness of an audio frame; and

indicating the audio frame as occurring at a commercial transition based on the amount of audio randomness of the audio frame.

26. A method as defined in claim 25, wherein determining the amount of audio randomness comprises:

determining a quantity of unique time-based distances between at least one of a plurality of amplitude peaks or a plurality of amplitude troughs in the audio frame; and

determining a random-factor ratio by dividing the quantity of unique time-based distances by a quantity of total time-based distances between the at least one of the amplitude peaks or the amplitude troughs.

27. A method as defined in claim 25, wherein indicating the audio frame as occurring at the commercial transition based on the amount of audio randomness of the audio frame comprises indicating the audio frame as occurring at the commercial transition when the amount of audio randomness exceeds a threshold.

28. A method as defined in claim 25, wherein the commercial transition comprises at least one of a transition between two commercial advertisements or a transition between a commercial advertisement and a media program.

29. A method as defined in claim 25, wherein the audio frame is reconstructed from at least one of a television transmission, an internet-streamed video, or a video on demand video.

30. A method as defined in claim 25, wherein the determining of the amount of audio randomness of the audio frame is performed in response to detecting quiet audio in the audio frame.

31. A method as defined in claim 25, wherein the amount of audio randomness of the audio frame is indicative of an inter-scene blank frame occurring in a media program or an inter-segment blank frame occurring between two media program segments.

32-45. -45. (canceled)

46. A method to detect a commercial transition associated with a media presentation, the method comprising:

generating a first hint value in response to detecting a first characteristic associated with a media presentation indicative of a possible commercial transition;

generating a second hint value in response to detecting a second characteristic associated with the media presentation indicative of the possible commercial transition;

weighting the first and second hint values;

determining an aggregate weighted hint value based on the first and second weighted hint values; and

confirming the presence of the commercial transition associated with the media presentation based on the aggregate weighted hint value.

47. A method as defined in claim 46, wherein the first characteristic is an amount of audio randomness in an audio frame and the second characteristic is a change in box-formatting between consecutive video frames.

48. A method as defined in claim 47, further comprising adding at least a third weighted hint value to the aggregate weighted hint value, the third weighted hint value associated with detecting in association with the media presentation at least one of a frame aspect ratio change, an audio format change, a timestamp discontinuity, a closed-captioning text discontinuity, or a commercial insertion opportunity code.

49. A method as defined in claim 46, wherein the first hint value is weighted based on the reliability of the first characteristic as an indicator of an actual commercial transition and the second hint value is weighted based on the reliability of the second characteristic as an indicator of an actual commercial transition.

51. A method as defined in claim 46, wherein confirming the presence of the commercial transition associated with the media presentation comprises confirming the presence of the commercial transition when the aggregate weighted hint value exceeds a threshold.

50. (canceled)

52-63. -63. (canceled)