Methods and appratus for characterizing media

• US 8,060,372 B2
• Filed: 02/20/2008
• Issued: 11/15/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/20/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Original Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Inventors: Topchy, Alexander, Ramaswamy, Arun, Srinivasan, Venugopal
• Primary Examiner(s): Wozniak; James S.
• Assistant Examiner(s): He; Jialong
• Application Number:
  US12/034,489
• Publication Number:
  US 20080215315A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,364 Days
• Field of Search: 704/500, 704/205, 725/18, 725/19, 713/179
• US Class Current: 704/273
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/14 for monitoring programmes
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/58 of audio determination or detection of speech characteristics in general G10L25/00; speech recognition in general G10L15/00

Abstract

Methods and apparatus for characterizing media are described. In one example, a method of characterizing media includes capturing a block of audio; converting at least a portion of the block of audio into a frequency domain representation including a plurality of complex-valued frequency components; defining a band of complex-valued frequency components for consideration; determining a decision metric using the band of complex-valued frequency components; and determining a signature bit based on a value of the decision metric. Other examples are shown and described.

Claims

1. An apparatus to characterize media comprising:

a sample generator to capture a block of audio;

a transformer to convert at least a portion of the block of audio into a frequency domain representation including a plurality of complex-valued frequency components;

a decision metric computer to;

define a band of complex-valued frequency components for consideration;

determine a decision metric using the band of complex-valued frequency components by convolving a group of the complex-valued frequency components in the band with a pair of complex vectors, each of the pair of complex vectors and the group of the complex-valued frequency components having an odd number of elements greater than one; and

a signature determiner to determine a signature bit based on a value of the decision metric, wherein at least one of the decision metric computer or the signature determiner is implemented using a processor.

2. An apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein the group of complex-valued frequency components in the band has three of the complex-valued frequency components and the pair of complex vectors is a pair of three element complex vectors.

3. An apparatus as defined in claim 2, wherein determining the decision metric comprises a sum of convolutions.

4. An apparatus as defined in claim 2, wherein a sum of squares of a first three element vector is equal to a sum of squares of a second three element vector.

5. An apparatus as defined in claim 2, wherein the pair of three element complex vectors is selected from a set of three or more three element complex vectors.

6. An apparatus as defined in claim 2, wherein the pair of three element complex vectors is selected based on a band being processed.

7. An apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein the convolution of complex-valued frequency components with complex vectors represents energy distribution symmetry in the band.

8. An apparatus to characterize media comprising:

a sample generator to capture a block of audio;

a transformer to convert at least a portion of the block of audio into a frequency domain representation including a plurality of complex-valued frequency components;

a decision metric computer comprising a processor to;

define a band of complex-valued frequency components for consideration;

determine a decision metric using the band of complex-valued frequency components by convolving the complex-valued frequency components in the band with complex vectors, wherein the decision metric is based on differences of results of convolutions between the complex-valued frequency components with a first complex vector and results of convolutions between the complex-valued frequency components with a second complex vector; and

a signature determiner to determine a signature bit based on a value of the decision metric.

9. An apparatus as defined in claim 8, wherein the decision metric is based on a sum of differences of results of convolutions between the complex-valued frequency components with a first complex vector and results of convolutions between the complex-valued frequency components with a second complex vector.

10. A method of characterizing media comprising:

capturing a block of audio;

converting at least a portion of the block of audio into a frequency domain representation including a plurality of frequency domain coefficients;

defining a band of frequency domain coefficients for consideration;

determining, using a processor, a decision metric by calculating a convolution of a group of the frequency domain coefficients in the band with a pair of complex vectors, the group of the frequency domain coefficients and each of the complex vectors having an odd number of elements greater than one; and

determining a signature bit based on a value of the decision metric.

11. A method as defined in claim 10, wherein the group of frequency domain coefficients in the band has three of the frequency domain coefficients and the pair of complex vectors is a pair of three element complex vectors.