Systems Apparatus and Methods for Encoding/Decoding Persistent Universal Media Codes to Encoded Audio

• US 20150039320A1
• Filed: 07/31/2013
• Published: 02/05/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/31/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Original Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Inventors: Neuhauser, Alan, Stavropoulos, John
• Granted Patent: US 9,711,152 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/500
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/21 Design, administration or maintenance of databases
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/018 Audio watermarking, i.e. embedding inaudible data in the audio signal

Abstract

Apparatus, system and method for encoding and/or decoding persistent universal media identification (ID) codes embedded in audio. For encoding, a persistent identifier code is generated or received from a registry database, where the code includes data for uniquely identifying a media object. Audio code components including frequency characteristics are generated to represent symbols of the persistent identifier code and the audio code components are psychoacoustically embedded into an audio portion of the media object to include the persistent identifier code within one or more of a plurality of encoding layers. Such embedded audio may be subsequently decoded by transforming the audio data into a frequency domain and processing the transformed audio data to detect the persistent identifier code.

Claims

1. A method of encoding audio data, comprising:

receiving a persistent identifier code comprising data for uniquely identifying a media object;

generating audio code components comprising frequency characteristics to represent symbols of the persistent identifier code; and

psychoacoustically embedding the audio code components into an audio portion of the media object to include the persistent identifier code within one or more of a plurality of encoding layers.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the persistent identifier code comprises a registry prefix and a registry suffix, wherein the registry suffix comprises data uniquely identifying the media object from a plurality of other media objects.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the persistent identifier code is received over a computer network from a registry database.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the received persistent identifier code is detected from a non-audio data portion of the media object.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the audio code components comprise single frequency code components.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein none of the code component frequencies representing symbols in one layer are used to represent any symbol of another layer.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein some of the code component frequencies representing symbols in one layer are used to represent any symbol of another layer.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of psychoacoustically embedding the audio code components into an audio portion of the media object to include the persistent identifier code comprises synchronization symbols.

9. A method for decoding audio data, comprising:

receiving audio data associated with a media object in a device, wherein the audio data comprises a psychoacoustically embedded persistent identifier code comprising data for uniquely identifying the media object;

transforming the audio data into a frequency domain; and

processing the transformed audio data to detect the persistent identifier code, wherein the persistent identifier code comprises audio code components having frequency characteristics representing symbols of the persistent identifier code,

and wherein the persistent identifier code is detected from one or more of a plurality of encoded layers within the audio data.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the persistent identifier code comprises a registry prefix and a registry suffix, wherein the registry suffix comprises data uniquely identifying the media object from a plurality of other media objects.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising the steps of calling metadata from a registry database in response to detecting the persistent identifier code.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the metadata comprises information relating to one or more media object types.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the object type is at least one of a basic type, a structural type and a referent type.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the metadata comprises information relating to one or more media object relationships to one or more other media objects.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the information comprises at least one of (i) metadata inherited from the one or more other media objects, and (ii) metadata that is dependent from the one or more other media objects.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein the metadata comprises at least one of descriptive metadata and encoding metadata relating to the media object.

17. The method of claim 9, wherein the audio code components comprise single frequency code components.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein none of the code component frequencies representing symbols in one layer are used to represent any symbol of another layer.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein some of the code component frequencies representing symbols in one layer are used to represent any symbol of another layer.

20. The method of claim 11, wherein the device comprises a device capable of reproducing audio data.