METHODS AND APPARATUS TO DETECT COMMERCIAL ADVERTISEMENTS ASSOCIATED WITH MEDIA PRESENTATIONS

• US 20150082332A1
• Filed: 11/26/2014
• Published: 03/19/2015
• 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: Wright, David H., Wilson, Scott, Schwerer, Ron, Heffernan, Ronan
• Granted Patent: US 9,591,353 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/18
• 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 includes determining an amount of audio randomness an inter-segment audio frame. The example method also includes indicating the inter-segment audio frame as occurring at a commercial transition based on the amount of audio randomness of the at least one inter-segment audio frame.

Claims

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

determining an amount of audio randomness an inter-segment audio frame; and

indicating the inter-segment audio frame as occurring at a commercial transition based on the amount of audio randomness of the at least one inter-segment audio frame.

2. A method as defined in claim 1, 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 inter-segment 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.

3. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein indicating the inter-segment audio frame as occurring at the commercial transition based on the amount of audio randomness of the inter-segment audio frame comprises indicating the inter-segment audio frame as occurring at the commercial transition when the amount of audio randomness exceeds a threshold.

4. A method as defined in claim 1, 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.

5. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the inter-segment audio frame is reconstructed from at least one of a television transmission, an internet-streamed video, or a video on demand video.

6. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the determining of the amount of audio randomness of the inter-segment audio frame is performed in response to detecting quiet audio in the inter-segment audio frame.

7. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the amount of audio randomness of the inter-segment audio frame is indicative of an inter-segment blank frame occurring between two media program segments.

8. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising determining a root-mean-squared value of audio in the inter-segment audio frame, the determining of the amount of audio randomness of the inter-segment audio frame being performed in response to the root-mean-squared value of the audio exceeding a first threshold and being less than a second threshold.

9. An apparatus to detect a commercial transition associated with a media presentation, the apparatus comprising:

an audio features detector to determine an amount of audio randomness of an audio frame; and

an advertisement detector to indicate the audio frame as occurring at a commercial transition based on the amount of audio randomness of the audio frame.

10. The apparatus as defined in claim 9, wherein the audio features detector determines the amount of audio randomness by:

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.

11. The apparatus as defined in claim 9, 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.

12. The apparatus as defined in claim 9, 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.

13. The apparatus as defined in claim 9, wherein the audio frame is reconstructed from at least one of a television transmission, an internet-streamed video, or a video on demand video.

14. The apparatus as defined in claim 9, wherein the audio features detector is to determine the amount of audio randomness of the audio frame in response to detecting quiet audio in the audio frame.

15. The apparatus as defined in claim 9, 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.

16. A tangible machine readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed, cause a machine to:

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

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

17. The machine readable medium as defined in claim 16 having instructions stored thereon to determine the amount of audio randomness by:

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.

18. The machine readable medium as defined in claim 16, 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.

19. The machine readable medium as defined in claim 16, wherein the audio frame is reconstructed from at least one of a television transmission, an internet-streamed video, or a video on demand video.

21. The machine readable medium as defined in claim 16 having instructions stored thereon that, when executed, cause the machine to determine the amount of audio randomness of the audio frame in response to detecting quiet audio in the audio frame.

22. The machine readable medium as defined in claim 16, 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.

23. 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, the first characteristic being a threshold randomness of audio of an inter-segment audio frame;

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

24. A method as defined in claim 23, wherein the second characteristic is a change in box-formatting between consecutive video frames.

25. A method as defined in claim 24, further comprising adding 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.

26. A method as defined in claim 23, wherein the first hint value is weighted based on a 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.

27. A method as defined in claim 23, 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.

28. A method as defined in claim 23, wherein the first characteristic associated with a media presentation indicative of the possible commercial transition is detected in response to determining that a root-mean-square value of an audio level in the inter-segment fame exceeds a first threshold and is less than a second threshold.