Method and system for identification of distributed broadcast content

• US 8,442,426 B2
• Filed: 12/01/2011
• Issued: 05/14/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/03/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Shazam Entertainment Limited (Apple Inc.)
• Inventors: Wang, Avery Li-Chun, Wong, Chee, Symons, Jonathan
• Primary Examiner(s): SHARMA, SUJATHA R
• Application Number:
  US13/309,222
• Publication Number:
  US 20120079515A1
• Time in Patent Office: 530 Days
• Field of Search: 455/3.01, 455/3.02, 455/3.03, 455/3.06, 455/427, 455/404.2, 455/412.1, 455/414.2, 455/12.1, 709/224, 709/219, 709/217, 709/94, 709/229, 709/231, 709/203, 725/14, 725/18, 725/9, 725/35
• US Class Current: 455/3.02
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/683 using metadata automatically derived from the content
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 2201/30 characterised by the use of a return channel, e.g. for collecting users' opinions, for returning broadcast space/time information or for requesting data
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/37 for identifying segments of broadcast information, e.g. scenes or extracting programme ID
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/40 for identifying broadcast time
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/42 for identifying broadcast areas
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/58 of audio determination or detection of speech characteristics in general G10L25/00; speech recognition in general G10L15/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/74 using programme related information, e.g. title, composer or interpreter
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44 Processing of video elementary streams, e.g. splicing a video clip retrieved from local storage with an incoming video stream or rendering scenes according to encoded video stream scene graphs

Abstract

A method and system of performing high-throughput identifications of broadcast content is provided. A device can send a content identification query, which includes a sample of content being broadcast, to a server to request an identity of the content. The server will perform a computational identification of the content, return the result to the device, and store the result. For all subsequently received content identification queries requesting an identity of content being broadcast from the same source and in a time during which the content is still being broadcast from the source, the server will send the stored content identification in response to the subsequent queries. If a subsequent content identification query does not request the identity of content being broadcast from the same source or is not received during the time that the content is still being broadcast, the server will perform a computational identification of a content sample.

Claims

1. A method for identifying content, comprising:

for a second content identification query received after a first content identification query and during a broadcast of content for which the second content identification query pertains, providing, as a response to the second content identification query, a response to the first content identification query.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the second content identification query pertains to content broadcast from a same broadcast source as content that was a subject of the first content identification query.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving the second content identification query from a client device, and wherein the second content identification query includes information identifying a broadcast source of content that is a subject of the second content identification query.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the information identifying the broadcast source includes one or more of a broadcast frequency, a satellite radio channel, a television channel, a uniform resource locator (URL), and an internet address.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving the second content identification query from a client device at a given location; and

determining the response to the second content identification query based on the given location.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the second content identification query includes information identifying the given location of the client device.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving the second content identification query from a second client device, and

wherein providing, as the response to the second content identification query, the response to the first content identification query comprises:

providing a previous identification of content performed in response to the first content identification query received from a first client device located in a geographic location of a coverage area of a same broadcast source that broadcast content that was a subject of the second content identification query.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining the response to the second content identification query without performing a computational identification of the content.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising retrieving from memory the response to the first content identification query.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving the second content identification query from a client device; and

requesting from the client device a media sample of the broadcast of content for which the second content identification query pertains.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving at a server the second content identification query from a client device; and

providing to the client device, as the response to the second content identification query, the response to the first content identification query.

12. A method comprising:

performing a computational identification of content broadcast from a source;

determining a time length of the content; and

marking the computational identification as valid for a time window based on the time length of the content.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

based on the time window, determining a time at which to perform a second computational identification of second content broadcast from the source, wherein the second content is broadcast from the source subsequent to the content broadcast from the source.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the content broadcast from the source includes a segment of content within a continuous data stream.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein performing the computational identification of content broadcast from the source comprises determining information indicative of a song broadcast from the source,

and wherein the time window is approximately a time corresponding to a length of the song.

16. A client device comprising:

a media sampler configured to record a portion of a broadcast of content;

a query generator configured to provide to a server a content identification query comprising a geographic location of the client device, a timestamp of the content identification query, and broadcast source information;

wherein data identifying the broadcast of content is received in response to the content identification query.

17. The client device of claim 16, wherein the query generator is further configured to provide the recording of the portion of the broadcast of content to the server in response to receiving a request for a media sample from the server.

18. The client device of claim 16, wherein the broadcast of content includes video.

19. The client device of claim 16, wherein the broadcast of content includes audio.

20. The client device of claim 16, wherein the data identification the broadcast of content received in response to the content identification query includes a time indicating a length of the content, and wherein the query generator is further configured to compute a time at which to provide a subsequent content identification query to the server based on the time indicating the length of the content.