Video clip identification system unusable for commercial cutting

• US 6,546,556 B1
• Filed: 12/28/1998
• Issued: 04/08/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 12/26/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Information Broadcasting Laboratories Incorporated, Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Information Broadcasting Laboratories Incorporated, Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Kataoka, Mitsuteru, Machida, Kazuhiro, Harada, Takenosuke
• Primary Examiner(s): Faile, Andrew
• Assistant Examiner(s): Huynh, Son P.
• Application Number:
  US09/220,887
• Time in Patent Office: 1,562 Days
• Field of Search: 725/34, 725/35, 725/93, 725/88, 725/102, 348/465, 348/907, 358/908, 386/94, 386/95
• US Class Current: 725/35
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234 Processing of video elementary streams, e.g. splicing of video streams or manipulating encoded video stream scene graphs
• 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 21/458 Scheduling content for creating a personalised stream, e.g. by combining a locally stored advertisement with an incoming stream; Updating operations, e.g. for OS modules ; time-related management operations arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast or during the distribution H04H20/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8455 involving pointers to the content, e.g. pointers to the I-frames of the video stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/088 the inserted signal being digital
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/0887 for the transmission of programme or channel identifying signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/165 Centralised control of user terminal subsequent to an upstream request signal H04N7/17345; Registering at central by two-way working H04N7/17309
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 358/908 Pause control, i.e. "commercial killers"

Abstract

A tagged scene of a video stream transmitted from a first to second stations in television broadcasting system is collected while preventing the tags from being used for commercial cutting (i.e., indiscriminate tagged scene cutting). The first station generates for each scene a tag includes a category, a location for use in locating a beginning of the scene and a length. A second station obtains a desired category from the user. Detecting a tag in the video stream, if the category coincides with the desired category, the second station clips from the video stream a part of the length defined in the tag from a position located by using the location. Five solutions are disclosed: removing the length information from tag; inserting counterfeit tags: the first station encoding a part of tag and the second station decoding the encoded part; the first station encoding the category and sending a category-encoded category table the second station; and a syndrome of a combination of said category and a parameter is used as an encoded category. The parameter may be used as subcategory and/or super-category.

Claims

1. In a television broadcasting system wherein a first station transmits a video stream to second stations, a method, for use in the first station, of permitting a second stations to extract a scene within the video stream, the method comprising the steps of:

generating a tag for said scene, said tag including;

a category of said scene, identifying a beginning of said scene and a length of said scene;

preventing said tag from being used to identify a location for commercial cutting; and

inserting said tag in said video stream at a position associated with said beginning of said scene.

2. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising removing said length from said tag.

3. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising inserting at least one counterfeit tag, including false data, in said video stream.

4. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising:

encoding one of said category, said location and said length through a one-way function; and

using said encoded material.

8. A method as defined in claim 2, further comprising:

encoding said category into an encoded category through a one-way function;

using said encoded category in place of said category; and

for each of a plurality of possible categories, sending a set of said category and said encoded category to said second stations before inserting said tag in said video stream.

9. A method as defined in claim 8, wherein said encoded category is a syndrome of a combination of said category and a parameter.

10. A method as defined in claim 9, further comprising the steps of:

making a list of subcategories for a desired one of possible categories;

find a syndrome for a combination of said desired category and each of said subcategories by using each of said subcategories as said parameter;

send a table of said category, said subcategories, and corresponding syndromes to said second stations; and

using said syndromes as said encoded categories.

11. A method as defined in claim 9, further comprising the steps of:

creating a super-category comprising a list of categories;

find a syndrome for a combination of said super-category and each of said list of categories by using each of said list of categories as said parameter;

send said list for said super-category to said second stations; and

using said syndromes as said encoded categories.

5. In a television broadcasting system comprising transmitting a video stream from a first station to second stations, a method, for use in a second station, of identifying a scene within the video stream, the method comprising the steps of:

obtaining from a user a category of scenes that the user desires;

detecting a tag associated with said scene that is in said video stream, said tag including a category of said scene, a location of a beginning of said scene and a length of said scene,

wherein said tag comprises means to prevent said tag from being used for commercial cutting; and

if said category incorporated in said tag coincides with said desired category, extracting from said video stream a part of a length of said video stream, defined by the length of said scene.

6. A method as defined in claim 5, further comprising clipping from said video stream a part of a largest one of a plurality of standardized lengths.

7. A method as defined in claim 5, further comprising;

encoding one of said category, said location or said length with a one-way function, clipping from said video stream a part of said length,

decoding one of said category, location or length into decoded material; and

using said decoded material.

12. A method as defined in claim 5, further comprising;

encoding said category of said detected tag into an encoded category using a one-way function, and

clipping from said video stream a part of a length, wherein said clipping comprises the steps of;

receiving a set of said category and said encoded category for each of a plurality of possible categories; and

if said category of said detected tag coincides with said encoded category associated by said set with said desired category, clipping from said video stream said part of said length.

13. A method as defined in claim 12, wherein said encoded category is a syndrome of a combination of said category and a parameter.

14. A method as defined in claim 13, further comprising the step of:

receiving a table of said category, subcategories of said category and corresponding syndromes from said first station; and

using said syndromes as said encoded categories and using said subcategories as said categories.

15. A method as defined in claim 13, further comprising the step of:

receiving a super-category list comprising a list of categories from said first station; and

using said syndromes as said encoded categories and using said super-category as one of said categories.

16. A system, within a first station in a television broadcasting system, for permitting a second station to extract a scene from within a video stream being broadcast from the first station, the system comprising:

means for generating a tag for said scene, said tag including a category of said scene,

means for locating a beginning of said scene and a length of said scene;

means for preventing said tag from being used for commercial cutting; and

means for inserting said tag in said video stream at the position associated with said scene beginning.

17. A system as defined in claim 16, further comprising:

means for encoding said category into an encoded category through a one-way function;

means for using said encoded category in place of said category; and

means for sending a set of said category and encoded category, for each of a plurality of possible categories, to said second station(s) before inserting said tag in said video stream.

18. A system as defined in claim 16, wherein said category is a syndrome of a combination of said category and a parameter.

19. A system as defined in claim 18, her comprising:

means for making a list of subcategories for a desired one of possible categories;

means for finding a syndrome for a combination of said desired category and each of said subcategories by using each of said subcategories as said parameter;

means for sending a table of said category, said subcategories, and corresponding syndromes to said second station(s); and

means for using said syndromes as said categories.

20. A system as defined in claim 18, further comprising:

means for creating a super-category comprising a list of categories;

means for finding a syndrome for a combination of said super-category and each of said list of categories by using each of said list of categories as said parameter;

means for sending said list for said super-category to said second station(s); and

means for using said syndromes as said categories.

21. A system as defined in claim 16, wherein said category is a syndrome of a combination of said category and a parameter.

22. A system as defined in claim 21, further comprising:

means for receiving a table of said category, subcategories of said category and corresponding syndromes from said first station; and

means for using said syndromes as said encoded categories and using said subcategories as said categories.

23. A system as defined in claim 21, further comprising:

means for receiving a super-category list comprising a list of categories from said first station; and

means for using said syndromes as said encoded categories and using said super-category as one of said categories.

24. In a television broadcasting system wherein a first station transmits a video stream to second stations, a system, within at least one second station, for extracting a scene within said video stream from the first station, the system comprising:

means for obtaining from a user a category of scenes that the user desires;

means for detecting at least one tag in said video stream, said tag including a category of said scene,

means for locating a beginning of said scene and a length of said scene,

wherein said tag is adapted to prevent said tag front being used for commercial cutting; and

means, responsive to a determination that said category included in said tag coincides with said desired category, for extracting, from said video stream a part of a length of the video stream defined by said length of said scene starting from a beginning of said scene.

25. A system as defined in claim 24, wherein said category of said detected tag has been encoded into an encoded category with a one-way function, and further comprising:

means for clipping a part of said length from said video stream;

means for receiving a set of said category and said encoded category for each of a plurality of possible categories; and

means, responsive to a determination that said category of said detected tag coincides with said encoded category associated by said set with said desired category, for clipping said part from said video stream.