System and method for voting on popular video intervals

• US 8,181,197 B2
• Filed: 02/06/2008
• Issued: 05/15/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/06/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Badoiu, Mihai, Muthukrishnan, Shanmugavelayutham
• Primary Examiner(s): Hirl, Joseph P
• Assistant Examiner(s): NGUYEN, AN V
• Application Number:
  US12/027,184
• Publication Number:
  US 20090199251A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,560 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 725/24
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0278 Product appraisal
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0282 Rating or review of business operators or products
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23109 by placing content in organized collections, e.g. EPG data repository details of retrieval of video data and associated meta data in video databases G06F16/739
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4756 for rating content, e.g. scoring a recommended movie

Abstract

A system and method is provided for identifying popular intervals in online hosted videos. To determine popular intervals associated with a video, a plurality of votes for one or more intervals of the video are collected and organized into a plurality of groups. Each group includes votes for intervals of the video that are similar to each other. A group having the highest number of votes is identified, and a most popular clip of the video is formed based upon the intervals in the group with the highest number of votes. This process can be carried out to determine the groups having the second and third highest number of votes in a single video to form the second and third most popular clips in that video, as well as across numerous videos to identify the most popular clips within different videos.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for determining popular intervals associated with a first video, the method comprising:

receiving a plurality of votes from users while the users are viewing the first video, each vote identifying an interval of the first video, the plurality of votes comprising a first vote associated with a first interval and a second vote associated with a second interval different from the first internal;

forming a plurality of interval groups by identifying a plurality of scenes or features in the first video and associating each interval group with a set of one or more scenes or with a set of one or more features in the first video, each interval group including intervals of the first video that are similar to each other;

determining a first one of the interval groups having a highest number of associated votes; and

responsive to determining the first interval group having the highest number of associated votes, forming a first popular clip of the first video from video content of the intervals in the first interval group, the first popular clip being a continuous portion of the first video having a single start time and a single end time.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein forming the plurality of interval groups comprises clustering the votes based on a timestamp associated with each vote.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein each interval has a start time and an end time, and forming the plurality of interval groups comprises clustering the votes based on the start times and the end times of the intervals.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein each vote has a reputation score associated with a user providing the vote.

5. The method of claim 4;

further comprising;

assigning a weight to each vote based on the reputation score; and

determining the first interval group having the highest number of votes based on the assigned weights of the votes.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

assigning a weight to each vote based on whether the vote was provided by a unique user; and

determining the first interval group having the highest number of votes based on the assigned weights of the votes.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein forming the plurality of interval groups comprises determining a maximum number of popular clips permitted based on a number of indications of popular clips that can be visually distinguished on a timeline corresponding to the first video.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein forming the plurality of interval groups comprises determining an amount of time between the intervals with which the votes are associated.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying an indication of the first popular clip on a timeline associated with the first video.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a second interval group having a second highest number of votes;

forming a second popular clip based on the intervals in the second interval group; and

ranking the first popular clip and the second popular clip based on the votes in each interval group.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

displaying an indication of the first popular clip and an indication of the second popular clip of the first video.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

forming an excerpt of the first video comprising the first popular clip and the second popular clip; and

displaying the excerpt.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a plurality of votes associated with one or more intervals of a second video;

forming a plurality of interval groups for the second video, each interval group including votes for intervals of the second video that are similar to each other;

determining a first interval group for the second video having a highest number of votes received for a similar interval in the second video;

forming a first popular clip of the second video based upon the intervals in the first interval group for the second video; and

ranking the first video and the second video based on a number of votes associated with each popular clip of the first video and of the second video.

14. A system for determining popular intervals associated with a video comprising:

an extraction module, adapted to extract a plurality of votes from users while the users are viewing the video, each vote identifying an interval of the video, the plurality of votes comprising a first vote associated with a first interval and a second vote associated with a second interval different from the first interval;

a grouping module, adapted to form a plurality of interval groups by identifying a plurality of scenes or features in the video and associating each interval group with a set of one or more scenes or with a set of one or more features in the video, each interval group including intervals of the video that are similar to each other;

a vote determination module, adapted to determine a first one of the interval groups having a highest number of associated votes; and

a clip generation module, adapted to form a popular clip of the video from video content of the intervals in the first interval group, responsive to the vote determination module determining the first interval group having the highest number of associated votes, the first popular clip being a continuous portion of the first video having a single start time and a single end time.

15. The system of claim 14, further comprising:

a display module, adapted to display an indication of the popular clip on a graphical timeline associated with the video, the timeline displayed within a user interface for viewing the video.

16. The system of claim 14, further comprising:

a ranking module, adapted to rank popular clips within one or more videos.

17. A computer program product having a non-transitory computer readable storage medium and including computer executable code for determining popular intervals associated with a first video, the code adapted to perform steps comprising:

receiving a plurality of votes from users while the users are viewing the first video, each vote identifying an interval of the first video, the plurality of votes comprising a first vote associated with a first interval and a second vote associated with a second interval different from the first interval;

forming a plurality of interval groups by identifying a plurality of scenes or features in the first video and associating each interval group with a set of one or more scenes or with a set of one or more features in the first video, each interval group including intervals of the first video that are similar to each other;

determining a first one of the interval groups having a highest number of associated votes; and

responsive to determining the first interval group having the highest number of associated votes, forming a first popular clip of the first video from video content of the intervals in the first interval group, the first popular clip being a continuous portion of the first video having a single start time and a single end time.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, further comprising:

determining a second one of the interval groups having a second highest number of associated votes;

forming a second popular clip based on the intervals in the second interval group; and

ranking the first popular clip and the second popular clip based on the votes in the first group and the votes in the second group.

19. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein forming the plurality of interval groups comprises clustering the votes based on a timestamp associated with each vote.

20. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein each interval has a start time and an end time, and forming the plurality of interval groups comprises clustering the votes based an the start times and the end times of the intervals.

21. The computer program product of claim 17, further comprising:

receiving a plurality of votes from a user while the user is viewing a second video, each vote associated with an interval of the second video;

forming a plurality of interval groups for the second video, each interval group including intervals of the second video that are similar to each other;

determining a first one of the interval groups for the second video having a highest number of associated votes of the interval groups for the second video;

responsive to determining the first interval group for the second video having the highest number of associated votes, forming a first popular clip of the second video from video content of the intervals in the first group for the second video, the first popular clip of the second video being a continuous portion of the second video having a single start time and a single end time; and

ranking the first video and the second video based on a number of votes associated with each popular clip of the first video and of the second video.

22. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the first interval group corresponds to less than the entirety of the first video.