Interactive system
First Claim
1. An apparatus for associating interactive data with an object in a digital video programme including means for providing a digital video programme having plural individual frames at least some of which incorporate said object, means for parsing the video programme by identifying separate shots in the video programme to produce an edit list, means for identifying shots containing related content to form a sequence of shots containing related content, means for selecting at least one key-frame within each sequence of shots, means for selecting said object within the key-frame with which the interactive data is to be associated, means for extracting attributes of the object from the key-frame, means for associating the interactive data with the object in the key-frame, means for utilising the attributes of the object for tracking the object through the sequence of shots, whereby said interactive data is associated with the object in the sequence of shots and said interactive data is embedded with data representative of said object in a data sequence.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An interactive system provides a video program signal and generates interactive content data to be associated with at least one object within a frame of the video program. The interactive content data is embedded with the object and the object is tracked through a sequence of frames and the interactive content data is embedded into each one of the frames. The program frames with the embedded data are multiplexed with video and audio signals and may be broadcast. A receiver identifies an object of interest and the embedded data associated with the object is retrieved. The embedded data may be used for e-commerce.
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Citations
35 Claims
- 1. An apparatus for associating interactive data with an object in a digital video programme including means for providing a digital video programme having plural individual frames at least some of which incorporate said object, means for parsing the video programme by identifying separate shots in the video programme to produce an edit list, means for identifying shots containing related content to form a sequence of shots containing related content, means for selecting at least one key-frame within each sequence of shots, means for selecting said object within the key-frame with which the interactive data is to be associated, means for extracting attributes of the object from the key-frame, means for associating the interactive data with the object in the key-frame, means for utilising the attributes of the object for tracking the object through the sequence of shots, whereby said interactive data is associated with the object in the sequence of shots and said interactive data is embedded with data representative of said object in a data sequence.
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14. A method for associating interactive data with an object in a digital video programme including the steps of:
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a) providing a digital video programme having a plurality of individual frames at least some of which incorporate said object with which interactive data is to be associated, b) parsing the video programme by identifying separate shots in the video programme to produce an edit list, c) identifying, from the edit list, shots containing related content to form a sequence of shots containing related content, d) selecting at least one key-frame containing the object from within the sequence of shots, e) locating said object within the at least one key-frame, f) extracting attributes of the object from the at least one key-frame, g) associating the interactive data with the object in the at least one key-frame, h) tracking the object through the sequence of shots utilising the attributes of the object, i) associating said interactive data with the object in frames in the sequence of shots, and j) embedding said interactive data with data representative of said object in a data sequence representative of the digital video programme. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
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28. An apparatus for associating interactive data with an object in a digital video programme including means for providing a digital video programme having plural individual frames at least some of which incorporate said object, means for parsing the video programme by identifying separate shots in the video programme to produce an edit list, means for identifying shots containing related content to form a sequence of shots containing related content, means for selecting at least one key-frame within each sequence of shots, means for selecting said object within the key-frame with which the interactive data is to be associated, means for extracting attributes of the object from the key-frame, means for associating the interactive data with the object in the key-frame, means for utilising the attributes of the object for tracking the object through the sequence of shots, whereby said interactive data is associated with the object in the sequence of shots and said interactive data is embedded with data representative of said object in a data sequence, wherein said means for extracting attributes of said object includes means for comparing said attributes of said object with attributes of objects previously stored to determine whether the object is distinguishable therefrom, and when said object is determined not to be distinguishable, providing means for redefining the object.
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29. An apparatus for associating interactive data with an object in a digital video programme including means for providing a digital video programme having plural individual frames at least some of which incorporate said object, means for parsing the video programme by identifying separate shots in the video programme to produce an edit list, means for identifying shots containing related content to form a sequence of shots containing related content, means for selecting at least one key-frame within each sequence of shots, means for selecting said object within the key-frame with which the interactive data is to be associated, means for extracting attributes of the object from the key-frame, means for associating the interactive data with the object in the key-frame, means for utilising the attributes of the object for tracking the object through the sequence of shots, whereby said interactive data is associated with the object in the sequence of shots and said interactive data is embedded with data representative of said object in a data sequence, wherein said means for extracting said attributes includes means for comparing the location in the frame of said object with the location of objects already stored for that frame to determine whether that object is distinguishable therefrom, and where the location of said object is not distinguishable from the location of another object providing means for assigning rank to the objects to determine which object will be associated with that location.
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30. An apparatus for associating interactive data with an object in a digital video programme including means for providing a digital video programme having plural individual frames at least some of which incorporate said object, means for parsing the video programme by identifying separate shots in the video programme to produce an edit list, means for identifying shots containing related content to form a sequence of shots containing related content, means for selecting at least one key-frame within each sequence of shots, means for selecting said object within the key-frame with which the interactive data is to be associated, means for extracting attributes of the object from the key-frame, means for associating the interactive data with the object in the key-frame, means for utilising the attributes of the object for tracking the object through the sequence of shots, whereby said interactive data is associated with the object in the sequence of shots and said interactive data is embedded with data representative of said object in a data sequence, wherein said tracking means utilising the attributes of the object for tracking the object includes plural algorithm means for calculation of independent tracks of objects for use depending on the visual complexity of a sequence to automatically track objects in different types of visual environment.
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31. An apparatus for associating interactive data with an object in a digital video programme including means for providing a digital video programme having plural individual frames at least some of which incorporate said object, means for parsing the video programme by identifying separate shots in the video programme to produce an edit list, means for identifying shots containing related content to form a sequence of shots containing related content, means for selecting at least one key-frame within each sequence of shots, means for selecting said object within the key-frame with which the interactive data is to be associated, means for extracting attributes of the object from the key-frame, means for associating the interactive data with the object in the key-frame, means for utilising the attributes of the object for tracking the object through the sequence of shots, whereby said interactive data is associated with the object in the sequence of shots and said interactive data is embedded with data representative of said object in a data sequence, wherein said tracking means for utilising the attributes of the object for tracking includes means for converting all the frames to be tracked to a low-level representation, means for determining the position of each object in the frames by minimising a distance measure to locate each object in each frame, means for processing the positions of said object to smooth over occlusions and the entrances and exits of objects into and out of said frames, and means for reviewing the object within a tracked sequence and for correcting the location attributes of any misplaced objects.
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32. A method for associating interactive data representative of an object with a digital video programme including the steps of:
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a) providing a digital video programme having a plurality of individual frames at least some of which incorporate said object with which data is to be associated, b) parsing the video programme by identifying separate shots in the video programme to produce an edit list, c) identifying, from the edit list, shots containing related content to form a sequence of shots containing related content, d) selecting at least one key-frame containing the object from within the sequence of shots, e) locating said object within the at least one key-frame, f) extracting attributes of the object from the at least one key-frame including comparing said attributes of said object with attributes of objects previously stored to determine whether the object is distinguishable therefrom, and when said object is determined not to be distinguishable, re-defining the object, g) associating interactive data with the object in the at least one key-frame, h) tracking the object through the sequence of shots utilising the attributes of the object, i) associating said interactive data with the object in frames in the sequence of shots, and j) embedding said interactive data with data representative of said object in a data sequence representative of the digital video programme.
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33. A method for associating interactive data representative of an object with a digital video programme including the steps of:
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a) providing a digital video programme having a plurality of individual frames at least some of which incorporate said object with which data is to be associated, b) parsing the video programme by identifying separate shots in the video programme to produce an edit list, c) identifying, from the edit list, shots containing related content to form a sequence of shots containing related content, d) selecting at least one key-frame containing the object from within the sequence of shots, e) locating said object within the at least one key-frame, f) extracting attributes of the object from the at least one key-frame, including comparing the location in the frame of said object with the location of objects already stored for that frame to determine whether that object is distinguishable therefrom, and where the location of said object is not distinguishable from the location of another object, the step of assigning rank to the objects to determine which object will be associated with that location, g) associating interactive data with the object in the at least one key-frame, h) tracking the object through the sequence of shots utilising the attributes of the object, i) associating said interactive data with the object in frames in the sequence of shots, and j) embedding said interactive data with data representative of said object in a data sequence representative of the digital video programme.
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34. A method for associating interactive data representative of an object with a digital video programme including the steps of:
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a) providing a digital video programme having a plurality of individual frames at least some of which incorporate said object with which data is to be associated, b) parsing the video programme by identifying separate shots in the video programme to produce an edit list, c) identifying, from the edit list, shots containing related content to form a sequence of shots containing related content, d) selecting at least one key-frame containing the object from within the sequence of shots, e) locating said object within the at least one key-frame, f) extracting attributes of the object from the at least one key-frame, g) associating interactive data with the object in the at least one key-frame, h) tracking the object through the sequence of shots utilising the attributes of the object, including using plural algorithm means for calculation of independent tracks of objects for use depending on the visual complexity of a sequence automatically to track said objects in different types of visual environment, i) associating said interactive data with the object in frames in the sequence of shots, and j) embedding said interactive data with data representative of said object in a data sequence representative of the digital video programme.
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35. A method for associating interactive data representative of an object with a digital video programme including the steps of:
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a) providing a digital video programme having a plurality of individual frames at least some of which incorporate said object with which data is to be associated, b) parsing the video programme by identifying separate shots in the video programme to produce an edit list, c) identifying, from the edit list, shots containing related content to form a sequence of shots containing related content, d) selecting at least one key-frame containing the object from within the sequence of shots, e) locating said object within the at least one key-frame, f) extracting attributes of the object from the at least one key-frame, g) associating interactive data with the object in the at least one key-frame, h) tracking the object through the sequence of shots utilising the attributes of the object, including converting all the frames to be tracked to a low-level representation, determining the position of each object in the frames by minimising a distance measure to locate each object in each frame, processing the positions of said object to smooth over occlusions and the entrances and exits of objects into and out of said frames, reviewing the object within a tracked sequence and correcting the location attributes of any misplaced objects, i) associating said interactive data with the object in frames in the sequence of shots, and j) embedding said interactive data with data representative of said object in a data sequence representative of the digital video programme.
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Specification