SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AUTOMATIC CONTENT PROGRAM DISCOVERY

• US 20140245339A1
• Filed: 10/19/2011
• Published: 08/28/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/19/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Magnolia Licensing LLC (IP Edge LLC)
• Original Assignee: Thomson Licensing (Vantiva SA)
• Inventors: Zhang, Zhigang, Ma, Xiaojun, Kashyap, Ashwin S.
• Granted Patent: US 9,197,946 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/18
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/018 Audio watermarking, i.e. embedding inaudible data in the audio signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4126 The peripheral being portable, e.g. PDAs or mobile phones
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42203 sound input device, e.g. microphone
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4398 involving reformatting operations of audio signals details of audio signal transcoding G10L19/173
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44218 Detecting physical presence or behaviour of the user, e.g. using sensors to detect if the user is leaving the room or changes his face expression during a TV program methods or arrangements for recognising human body or animal bodies or body parts G06V40/10; methods or arrangements for acquiring or recognising human faces, facial parts, facial sketches, facial expressions G06V40/16; methods or arrangements for recognising movements or behaviour G06V40/20; arrangements for identifying users in broadcast systems H04H60/45
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4722 for requesting additional data associated with the content
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6547 comprising parameters, e.g. for client setup
• 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 21/8358 involving watermark protecting executable software by watermarking G06F21/16; image watermarking in general G06T1/0021; watermarks inserted in still images for transmission purposes H04N1/32144; inserting watermarks during video coding H04N19/467

Abstract

A system for program information discovery is described. A method and a device for generating and inserting a watermark for such program information discovery into a program signal to be rendered are disclosed, along with the corresponding method and device for watermark detection and decoding from the rendered program signals. Watermark, which carries channel/program information, is encoded and embedded at the set top box where the program streams are received and decoded for rendering. Second screen devices are employed for watermark detection and decoding by capturing the render program signals which has the watermark embedded. The extracted watermark information may be sent to information servers for more detailed channel/program information.

Claims

1. A system for using program information comprising:

a receiver for receiving and decoding program streams into program signals, for generating and embedding a program information watermark into a portion of the program signals, and for sending the decoded and watermarked program signals for rendering; and

a detecting device for detecting and decoding the program information watermark from the rendered program signals.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the detecting device further sends requests using the detected watermark to an information server for program information.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the watermark is embedded into an audio portion of the program signals.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the watermark is embedded into a video portion of the program signals.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the detecting device is a tablet.

6. A method for generating and inserting a program information watermark, the method comprising:

extracting program information from a program stream;

encoding said program information into a watermark message; and

embedding said watermark message into a signal of the program stream.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the embedding step further comprises:

modulating said watermark message with a host signal to obtain a watermark signal; and

embedding said watermark signal into said signal of the program stream.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

updating the watermark message when at least one of a predetermined time limit is reached and the program information changes.

9. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

tracking user context; and

incorporating the user context into the watermark message.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the user context comprises a history of program information.

11. The method of claim 6, wherein the watermark message is embedded into an audio signal of the program stream.

12. The method of claim 6, wherein the watermark message is embedded into a video signal of the program stream.

13. An apparatus for generating and inserting a program information watermark, the apparatus comprising:

a channel information extractor for extracting program information from a program stream;

a watermark encoder for encoding said program information into a watermark message; and

a watermark embedder for embedding said watermark message into a signal of the program stream.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the watermark embedder comprises:

a watermark modulator for modulating said watermark message with a host signal to obtain a watermark signal; and

a mixer for mixing said watermark signal with the signal of the program stream.

15. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the watermark encoder updates the watermark message when at least one of a time limit is reached and the program information changes.

16. The apparatus of claim 13, further comprising a user context tracker for tracking user context;

and wherein said watermark encoder incorporates the user context into the watermark message.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the user context comprises a history of program information.

18. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the watermark embedder embeds the watermark message into an audio signal of the program stream.

19. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the watermark embedder embeds the watermark message into a video signal of the program stream.

20. A method for detecting and decoding watermark messages from a rendered program signal, the method comprising:

obtaining said rendered program signal which contains a watermark signal that carries program information related to the rendered program signal and that is generated and embedded after a program stream that includes the rendered program signal is received for rendering;

extracting said watermark signal from the obtained program signal; and

decoding said watermark signal into a watermark message to obtain the program information related to the rendered program signal.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the obtaining step comprises recording an audio signal from said rendered program signal.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the obtaining step comprises recording a video signal from said rendered program signal.

23. The method of claim 20, wherein the watermark message comprises program information of said rendered program signal.

24. An apparatus for detecting and decoding watermark messages from a rendered program signal, the apparatus comprising:

an interface for obtaining said rendered program signal which contains a watermark signal that carries program information related to the rendered program signal and that is generated and embedded after a program stream that includes the rendered program signal is received for rendering;

a watermark extractor for extracting said watermark signal from the obtained program signal; and

a watermark decoder for decoding said watermark signal into a watermark message.

25. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the interface is a microphone which obtains said rendered program signal by recording an audio signal thereof.

26. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the interface is a camera which obtains said rendered program signal by recording a video signal thereof.

27. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the watermark message comprises program information of said rendered program signal.