Method and apparatus for identifying media content presented on a media playing device

• US 7,500,007 B2
• Filed: 09/29/2004
• Issued: 03/03/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/17/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: SkyGuard LLC (Wireless Matrix Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Audible Magic Corporation
• Inventors: Schrempp, James B., Ikezoye, Vance E.
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, PHUOC H
• Application Number:
  US10/955,841
• Publication Number:
  US 20050044189A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,616 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/219, 709/229, 709/231, 709/217, 713/193, 713/194
• US Class Current: 709/231
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/41 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/48 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/634 Query by example, e.g. query by humming
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/683 using metadata automatically derived from the content
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/783 using metadata automatically derived from the content
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/7834 using audio features
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/367 involving electronic purses or money safes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0631 Item recommendations
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2353 specifically adapted to content descriptors, e.g. coding, compressing or processing of metadata
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26603 for automatically generating descriptors from content, e.g. when it is not made available by its provider, using content analysis techniques
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

A system and method for identifying media content presented over a media playing device. The media content, such as audio and/or video, is either available digitally or digitally sampled. The media content is sampled to generate a media sample or analytical representation of the media content. The media sample is compared to a collection of sampled (or represented) media content to identify it and to ascertain information related to the sample. This media content-related information is then displayed by the media player. The media player then presents the user specific and related actions that are based upon the information presented and allows the user to directly execute their choice of actions.

Claims

1. A method for identifying a work from media content presented on a client media player comprising:

periodically creating an analytical representation from a segment of media content on said client media player, wherein the media content is data for said work, the work being a single rendering, and the segment being a portion of said media content that is less than an entirety of the work, wherein said analytical representation is a digital fingerprint of acoustical and perceptual features of said segment;

comparing said analytical representation to a collection of analytical representations of reference sampled media content of known works to obtain content-related data of said work from said collection of analytical representations of reference sampled media content; and

presenting said content-related data on said client media player.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said collection of analytical representations of reference sampled media content of known works is maintained in a lookup server in communication with said client media player, said method further comprising:

transmitting said analytical representation to a lookup server, before comparing said analytical representation to said collection of analytical representations of reference sampled media content; and

transmitting said content-related data to said client media player, before presenting said content-related data.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving a user-initiated command to identify said media content before creating an analytical representation of a segment of said media content.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein said transmitting said analytical representation to said lookup server is carried out over an Internet connection.

5. The method of claim 2 wherein said transmitting said content-related data to said client media player is carried out over an Internet connection.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein said creating an analytical representation of a segment of said media content of said work is carried out continuously.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein said creating an analytical representation of a segment of said media content further comprises maintaining a fixed buffer of media content of said work presented on said client media player.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the single rendering is at least one of an audio rendering or a video rendering.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein said audio rendering is one of a song, a musical audio track or a nonmusical audio track, and wherein said video rendering is one of an animation sequence or a video sequence.

10. A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform a method of identifying a work from media content presented on a client media player, said method comprising:

periodically creating an analytical representation from a segment of media content of said work presented on said client media player, wherein the media content is data for said work, the work being a single rendering, and the segment being a portion of the media content that is less than an entirety of the work, wherein said analytical representation is a digital fingerprint of acoustical and perceptual features of said segment;

comparing said analytical representation to a collection of analytical representations of reference sampled media content of known works to obtain content-related data of said work from said collection of analytical representations of reference sampled media content; and

presenting said content-related data of said work on said client media player.

11. The program storage device of claim 10, wherein said collection of analytical representations of reference sampled media content of known works is maintained in a lookup server in communication with said client media player, said method further comprising:

transmitting said analytical representation of said work to a lookup server, before comparing said analytical representation of said work to said collection of analytical representations of reference sampled media content; and

transmitting said content-related data of said work to said client media player, before presenting said content-related data.

12. In a network having at least one client media player operatively coupled for communication with a lookup server, a system for identifying a work from media content presented on the client media player comprising:

a client engine executing within the client media player, said client engine structured and configured to periodically create an analytical representation from a segment of media content of work presented on said client media player, wherein the media content is data for said work played on said client media player, the work being a single rendering, and the segment being a portion of said media content that is less than an entirety of the work, and to communicate said analytical representation to said lookup server, wherein said analytical representation is a digital fingerprint of acoustical and perceptual features of said segment;

a collection of analytical representations of reference sampled media content containing a plurality of analytical representations of sampled media content of known works, each associated with corresponding content-specific information; and

a server engine executing with said lookup server connected to said collection of analytical representations of sampled media content, said server engine structured and configured to receive said analytical representation of said work from said client media player and compare said received analytical representation with said plurality of analytical representations of sampled media content in said collection of analytical representations of reference sampled media content of known works to query and ascertain content information related to said received analytical representation, said server engine further structured and configured to transmit said content information to said client media player.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein said client engine is further structured and configured to display said content information.

14. The system of claim 12 wherein said media content is audio content.

15. The system of claim 12 wherein said media content is video content.

16. In a network having at least one client media player operatively coupled for communication with a lookup server, a client engine executing within the client media player for identifying a work from media content presented on the client media player comprising:

an interrupt unit structured and configured to monitor the client media player for media content of a said work presented thereon, wherein said work is a single rendering;

a sampling unit structured and configured to periodically generate an analytical representation from a segment of media content of said work presented on said client media player and to transmit said analytical representation to said lookup server, wherein said segment is a portion of said media content that is less than an entirety of the work, and the analytical representation is a digital fingerprint of acoustical and perceptual features of said segment; and

a user interface structured and configured to receive content information related to said work from said lookup server and presenting said content information.

17. The client engine of claim 16, wherein said user interface is further structured and configured to receive user-requests from a user of said client media player, said sampling unit further structured and configured to generate said analytical representation upon receipt of said user request.