Commercial detection which detects a scene change in a video signal and the time interval of scene change points

• US 6,285,818 B1
• Filed: 01/27/1998
• Issued: 09/04/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 02/07/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Saturn Licensing LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Murabayashi, Noboru, Tomita, Masami, Ohta, Masashi, Suito, Taro, Takahashi, Takao, Akiba, Toshiya, Arai, Naohisa
• Primary Examiner(s): TRAN, THAI Q
• Application Number:
  US09/014,281
• Time in Patent Office: 1,316 Days
• Field of Search: H04/N.576, H04/N.5783, 386/1, 386/45, 386/46, 386/125, 386/126, 386/83, 360/69, 360/71, 348/571, 348/907, 358/908
• US Class Current: 386/249
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/20 Disc-shaped record carriers
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/218 Write-once discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/2525 Magneto-optical [MO] discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/2545 CDs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/90 Tape-like record carriers
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/22 Means responsive to presence or absence of recorded information signals
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/28 by using information signals recorded by the same method as the main recording G11B27/22 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/142 Detection of scene cut or scene change
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/179 the unit being a scene or a shot
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/87 involving scene cut or scene change detection in combination with video compression
• 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 21/4542 Blocking scenes or portions of the received content, e.g. censoring scenes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/147 Scene change detection
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/60 for the sound signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/781 on disks or drums
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/85 on discs or drums
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/16 Analogue secrecy systems; Analogue subscription systems
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 358/908 Pause control, i.e. "commercial killers"

Abstract

A commercial detector includes a soundless section detecting circuit which detects a soundless section of an audio signal S_A and a scene change detecting circuit which detects a scene change point of an image from a video signal S_V during the soundless section detected by the soundless section detecting circuit. A commercial section detecting circuit detects whether a time interval of the scene change points detected by the scene change detecting circuit agrees with a predetermined rule. A tuner detects a sound multiplexing mode S_SA of an audio signal received.

Claims

1. A commercial detection apparatus for detecting whether a reception content of a television broadcast signal consisting of a video signal and an audio signal is a commercial, said apparatus comprising:

soundless section detecting means for detecting a soundless section in said audio signal;

scene change detecting means for detecting a scene change point of an image from a video signal during said soundless section detected by said soundless section detecting means;

scene change interval detecting means for detecting whether a time interval of the scene change points detected by said scene change detecting means agrees with a predetermined rule; and

sound multiplexing mode detecting means for detecting a sound multiplexing mode of said received audio signal.

2. A commercial detection apparatus as claimed in claim 1, said scene change interval detecting means detects whether said time interval of the scene change points is 15 seconds multiplied by an integer.

3. A commercial detection method comprising:

a step of detecting a soundless section in a received audio signal;

a step of detecting a scene change point of an image from a received video signal during said soundless section; and

a step of detecting that a time interval of the scene change points agrees with a predetermined rule and a sound multiplexing mode of said received audio signal is stereo, such that a reception content of a television broadcast signal is a commercial.

4. A commercial detection method as claimed in claim 3, wherein said time interval of the scene change points is 15 seconds multiplied by an integer.

5. A recording apparatus for recording a video signal and an audio signal, said apparatus comprising:

commercial detecting means for detecting whether a reception content of a television broadcast signal consisting of a video signal and an audio signal is a commercial; and

switching means for switching whether to carry out recording according to a detection result of said commercial detecting means,

said commercial detecting means having;

soundless section detecting means for detecting a soundless section in said audio signal;

scene change detecting means for detecting a scene change point of an image from a video signal during said soundless section detected by said soundless section detecting means;

scene change interval detecting means for detecting whether a time interval of the scene change points detected by said scene change detecting means agrees with a predetermined rule; and

a sound multiplexing mode detecting means for detecting a sound multiplexing mode of said audio signal received.

6. A recording apparatus as claimed in claim 5, wherein said scene change interval detecting means detects whether said time interval of the scene change points is 15 seconds multiplied by an integer.

7. A recording method of a video and audio signal recording apparatus comprising commercial detecting means characterized by:

a step of detecting a soundless section in a received audio signal;

a step of detecting a scene change point of an image from a received video signal during said soundless section; and

if a time interval of the scene change points agrees with a predetermined rule and a sound multiplexing mode of said received audio signal is stereo, a reception content of a television broadcast signal is detected to be a commercial during which no recording is carried out.

8. A recording method as claimed in claim 7, wherein said time interval of the scene change points is 15 seconds multiplied by an integer.