Integrating and enhancing searching of media content and biometric databases

• US 8,055,667 B2
• Filed: 10/20/2009
• Issued: 11/08/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/03/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Original Assignee: Digimarc Corporation
• Inventors: Levy, Kenneth L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Wong; Don
• Assistant Examiner(s): HO, BINH VAN
• Application Number:
  US12/582,572
• Publication Number:
  US 20100161654A1
• Time in Patent Office: 749 Days
• Field of Search: 707/769, 707/756
• US Class Current: 707/756
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2471 Distributed queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/258 Data format conversion from or to a database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/436 using biological or physiological data of a human being, e.g. blood pressure, facial expression, gestures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/32 using biometric data, e.g. fingerprints, iris scans or voiceprints
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6254 by anonymising data, e.g. decorrelating personal data from the owner's identification
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99934 Query formulation, input preparation, or translation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99936 Pattern matching access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

Metadata for a content signal is searched by transforming the content signal into different hash formats, each being used to retrieve identifying information from corresponding databases. The identifying information enables retrieval of metadata from metadata databases. These systems and methods enable devices to access a wide array of dynamic metadata from disparate sources through queries that are derived from intrinsic content attributes.

Claims

1. A method for searching for metadata relating to media content, the method comprising:

receiving, from a first computing device, a content signal;

transforming the content signal into two or more different hash formats to derive digital watermark data embedded in the content signal, and using the digital watermark data to retrieve metadata for the content signal, wherein the two or more different hash formats correspond to different databases, and wherein the databases store hashes of content signals and corresponding identifying information;

using the two or more different hash formats to determine identifying information from the corresponding databases; and

based in part on the identifying information, retrieving metadata for the content signal.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the hash format comprises a template for a pattern recognition database.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the template comprises a template of image signal features.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the content signal is transformed on a client computing device, and the different hash formats are sent from the client computing devices to a router system that issues queries to corresponding databases to obtain the identifying information.

5. A computer readable medium on which is stored instructions that, if executed by a computing device, cause the computing devices to perform operations comprising:

receiving, from a first computing device, a content signal;

transforming the content signal into two or more different hash formats to derive digital watermark data embedded in the content signal, and using the digital watermark data to retrieve metadata for the content signal, wherein the two or more different hash formats correspond to different databases, and wherein the databases store hashes of content signals and corresponding identifying information;

using the two or more different hash formats to determine identifying information from the corresponding databases; and

based on the identifying information, retrieving metadata for the content signal.

10. The computer readable medium of claim 5, wherein the hash format comprises a template for a pattern recognition database.

11. The computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein the template comprises a template of image signal features.

12. The computer readable medium of claim 5, wherein the content signal is transformed on the computing device, and the different hash formats are sent from the computing devices to a router system that issues queries to corresponding databases to obtain the identifying information.

6. A system for searching for metadata relating to media content, the system comprising:

a memory for receiving and storing a content signal;

a computing device programmed to transform the content signal into two or more different hash formats to derive digital watermark data embedded in the content signal, and using the digital watermark data to retrieve metadata for the content signal, wherein the two or more different hash formats correspond to different databases, and wherein the databases store hashes of content signals and corresponding identifying information;

the computing device further programmed to use the two or more different hash formats to obtain identifying information from the corresponding databases; and

the computing device further programmed to retrieve metadata for the content signal from one or more metadata databases using the identifying information.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the hash format comprises a template for a pattern recognition database.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the template comprises a template of image signal features.

9. The system of claim 6, wherein the content signal is transformed on a client computing device, and wherein the different hash formats are sent from the client computing devices to a router system that issues queries to corresponding databases to obtain the identifying information.