Systems and methods for identifying pre-inserted and/or potential advertisement breaks in a video sequence

• US 8,311,390 B2
• Filed: 05/14/2009
• Issued: 11/13/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/14/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ROVI Product Corporation (Xperi Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Digitalsmiths Corporation (Adeia Inc.)
• Inventors: Berry, Matthew G.
• Primary Examiner(s): ATALA, JAMIE JO
• Application Number:
  US12/466,167
• Publication Number:
  US 20090285551A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,279 Days
• Field of Search: 386/249
• US Class Current: 386/249
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/40 in video content extracting overlay text G06V20/62; video retrieval G06F16/70; processing of video elementary streams in video servers H04N21/234; processing of video elementary streams in video clients H04N21/44
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/233 Processing of audio elementary streams monitoring, identification or recognition of audio in broadcast systems H04H60/58
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23418 involving operations for analysing video streams, e.g. detecting features or characteristics television picture signal circuitry for scene change detection H04N5/147; filtering for image enhancement G06T5/00; methods or arrangements for recognising scenes G06V20/00; arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of video in broadcast systems H04H60/59
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6125 involving transmission via Internet transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/76 Television signal recording
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/173 with two-way working, e.g. subscriber sending a programme selection signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/898 using frequency multiplication of the reproduced colour signal carrier with another auxiliary reproduced signal, e.g. a pilot signal carrier H04N9/83 takes precedence

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to systems and methods for identifying advertisement breaks in digital video files. Generally, an advertisement break identification module receives a digital video file and generates an edge response for each of one or more frames extracted from the video file. If one of the generated edge responses for a particular frame is less than a predefined threshold, then the module identifies the particular frame as the start of an advertisement break. The module then generates further edge responses for frames subsequent to the identified particular frame. Once an edge response is generated for a particular subsequent frame that is greater than the threshold, it is identified as the end of the advertisement break. The video file may then be manipulated or transformed, such as by associating metadata with the advertisement break for a variety of uses, removing the advertisement break from the video file, etc. Optionally, various time and/or frame thresholds, as well as an audio verification process, are used to validate the identified advertisement break.

Claims

1. A system for identifying advertisement breaks in digital video files, comprising:

a video database for storing digital video files; and

an advertisement break identification module operatively coupled to the video database that executes the computer-implemented steps of;

retrieving a digital video file form the video database, the digital video file comprising a plurality of frames;

generating an edge response comprising calculating the total number of edge pixels associated with an edge of a frame for frames in the plurality of frames comparing the edge response against a predefined edge response threshold value until a particular edge response for a particular frame is less than the predefined edge response threshold;

identifying the particular frame as a first frame in an advertisement break;

generating an edge response for frames subsequent to the first frame in the identified advertisement break until a particular subsequent edge response for a particular subsequent frame is greater than the predefined edge response threshold;

identifying the particular subsequent frame as a last frame in the identified advertisement break; and

storing data associated with the first frame and the last frame in the identified advertisement break in the video database and associated with the retrieved digital video file.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the advertisement break identification module further executes the steps of:

extracting an audio signal from the digital video file corresponding to the identified advertisement break;

performing a Fourier transform on the extracted audio signal to produce a plurality of frequency values;

calculating an average frequency value from the plurality of frequency values; and

if the average frequency value is outside of a predetermined audio frequency range, validating the identified advertisement break.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the advertisement break identification module further executes the step of verifying that edge responses for each of a preselected number of frames subsequent to the particular frame are less than the predefined edge response threshold before identifying the particular frame as a first frame in an identified advertisement break.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the advertisement break identification module further executes the step of verifying that edge responses for each of a preselected number of frames subsequent to the particular subsequent frame are greater than the predefined edge response threshold before identifying the particular subsequent frame as a last frame in the identified advertisement break.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the advertisement break identification module further executes the step of associating metadata with the first frame and the last frame of the identified advertisement break in the digital video file.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the metadata provides an instruction to a digital video player to skip past the identified advertisement break during display of the digital video file to a viewer.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the metadata provides an instruction to a digital video player to retrieve an advertisement for display during the identified advertisement break during display of the digital video file to a viewer.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the identified advertisement break comprises all frames of the digital video file between the identified first frame and last frame.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the advertisement break identification module further executes the step of removing the advertisement break from the digital video file.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the generated edge response for each frame is generated via a Canny edge detection algorithm.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the generated edge response for each frame comprises the number of pixels associated with edge features in each frame.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the data associated with the first frame and the last frame in the identified advertisement break comprises frame numbers of the respective frames.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the data associated with the first frame the last frame in the identified advertisement break comprises time codes of the respective frames.

14. A method for identifying an advertisement break in a digital video file, comprising the steps of:

receiving a digital video file, the digital video file comprising a plurality of frames;

generating an edge response comprising calculating the total number of edge pixels associated with an edge of a frame for frames in the plurality of frames comparing the edge response against a predefined edge response threshold value until a particular edge response for a particular frame is less than the predefined edge response threshold;

identifying the particular frame as a first frame in an advertisement break;

generating an edger response for frames subsequent to the first frame in the identified advertisement break until a particular subsequent edge response for a particular subsequent frame is greater than the predefined edge response threshold;

identifying the particular subsequent frame as a last frame in the identified advertisement break; and

storing data associated with the first frame and the last frame in the identified advertisement break in association with the digital video file,

whereby the stored data associated with the first frame and the last frame in the identified advertisement break is used for manipulation of the digital video file when the digital video file is displayed to a viewer.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising the steps of:

extracting an audio signal from the digital video file corresponding to the identified advertisement break;

performing a Fourier transform on the extracted audio signal to produce a plurality of frequency values;

calculating an average frequency value from the plurality of frequency values; and

if the average frequency value is outside of a predetermined audio frequency range, validating the identified advertisement break.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising the step of verifying that edge responses for each of a preselected sumter of frames subsequent to the particular frame are less than the predefined edge response threshold before identifying the particular frame as a first frame in an advertisement break.

17. The method of claim 14, further comprising the step of verifying that edge responses for each of a preselected number of frames subsequent to the particular subsequent frame are greater than the predefined edge response threshold before identifying the particular subsequent frame as a last frame in the identified advertisement break.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein the stored data associated with the first frame and the last frame of the identified advertisement break comprises metadata.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the manipulation of the digital video file comprises automatically skipping past the identified advertisement break during display of the digital video file to the viewer.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the manipulation of the digital video file comprises retrieving an advertisement for display during the identified advertisement break during display of the digital video file to the viewer.

21. In a computer network, a method for identifying an advertisement break in a digital video file, comprising the steps of:

receiving a digital video file, the digital video file comprising a plurality of frames;

extracting a selected subset of frames from the plurality of frames in the digital video file;

calculating an edge response comprising the total number of edge pixels associated with an edge of a frame for each frame in the selected subset of extracted frames;

upon a determination that the edge response for a particular frame in the selected subset of extracted frames is less than a predetermined edge response threshold by comparing the edge response against the predetermined edge response threshold, identifying the particular frame as an advertisement break start frame;

upon a determination that the edge response for a frame subsequent to the particular frame in the selected subset of extracted frames is greater than the predetermined edge response threshold, identifying the subsequent frame as an advertisement break stop frame; and

associating metadata indicative of an identified advertisement break with the advertisement break start frame and advertisement break stop frame in the digital video file.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the metadata provides an instruction to a digital video player to automatically skip from the advertisement break start frame to the advertisement break stop frame during display of the digital video file to a viewer.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the identified advertisement break comprises all frames of the digital video file located between the advertisement break start frame and the advertisement break stop frame.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising the step of deleting all frames associated with the identified advertisement break from the digital video file.

25. The method of claim 21, wherein the selected subset of frames includes each frame in the digital video file.