Systems and methods for determining attributes of media items accessed via a personal media broadcaster

• US 8,516,119 B2
• Filed: 11/14/2011
• Issued: 08/20/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/04/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sling Media LLC (Echostar Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sling Media Incorporated (Echostar Corporation)
• Inventors: Banger, Shashidhar, Iyer, Satish, Jacob, Ruben Thomas, Rao, Padmanabha, Venkatesan, Thiygarajan, Shirali, Amey Mangesh
• Primary Examiner(s): Chan, Wing F
• Assistant Examiner(s): MIAH, RAZU A
• Application Number:
  US13/295,873
• Publication Number:
  US 20120059914A1
• Time in Patent Office: 645 Days
• Field of Search: 709/225, 715/243, 725/135
• US Class Current: 709/225
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/70 of video data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/7844 using original textual content or text extracted from visual content or transcript of audio data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0253 During e-commerce, i.e. online transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0256 User search
• 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 21/26283 for associating distribution time parameters to content, e.g. to generate electronic program guide data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2665 Gathering content from different sources, e.g. Internet and satellite
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8153 comprising still images, e.g. texture, background image
• 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 21/8455 involving pointers to the content, e.g. pointers to the I-frames of the video stream

Abstract

Systems, devices and methods are described for determining attributes identifying media items from other media items. A first video sequence of a first media item is received from a media source, the video sequence including one or more images having first banner information embedded therein. The attributes of the first media item are determined. The determined attributes of the first media item can then be stored or otherwise processed as desired.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for determining attributes identifying different television programs provided in a media stream, the method comprising:

receiving a first video sequence representing a first television program from a media source;

receiving a second video sequence representing a second television program that is different from the first television program subsequent to receiving the first video sequence;

detecting a transition from the first video sequence to the second video sequence within the media stream;

in response to detecting the transition, extracting identifying information from the second video sequence; and

identifying the second television program received in the second video sequence based on the identifying information extracted from the second video sequence;

wherein the identifying comprises determining the attributes of the second television program by;

generating first candidate attributes based on the identifying information extracted from a banner image contained in one or more images of the second video sequence;

generating second candidate attributes based on information other than the identifying information extracted from the banner image; and

determining the attributes of the second television program based on the first candidate attributes and the second candidates attributes.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the extracting comprises:

capturing one or more images of the second video sequence having banner images embedded therein; and

generating text data representing the identifying information that is visually presented in the captured one or more images by using automatic character recognition.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the extracting further comprises filtering the text data to extract the identifying information.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the attributes of the second television program further comprises generating a confidence score based on matching of the first candidate attributes with the second candidate attributes, the confidence score representing likelihood that the determined attributes of the first television program are accurate.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the information other than the identifying information includes data for an electronic program guide, closed caption data, and XDS (extended Data Services) data.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising learning a structure of the identifying information and a location of a banner image within one or more images of the received second video sequence.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the identifying information is obtained from an electronic programming guide.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the extracting comprises sending at least a portion of the second video sequence via a network to a media management server and receiving the identifying information from the media management server.

9. A computer-implemented method for determining attributes identifying different television programs provided in a media stream, the method comprising:

receiving a first video sequence representing a first television program from a media source;

receiving a second video sequence representing a second television program that is different from the first television program subsequent to receiving the first video sequence;

detecting a transition from the first video sequence to the second video sequence within the media stream;

in response to detecting the transition, extracting identifying information from the second video sequence; and

identifying the second television program received in the second video sequence based on the identifying information extracted from the second video sequence,

wherein detecting the transition from the first video sequence to the second video sequence comprises detecting a user command associated with a channel change in the media source, detecting changes in XDS (extended Data Services) data received from the media source, detecting changes in an image received from the media source, or comparing first text data extracted from first banner information contained in the first video sequence with second text data extracted from second banner information contained within the second video sequence.

10. An apparatus for sending a datastream representing a sequence of media programs to a client device via a network, comprising:

an input interface configured to receive the media programs;

processing circuitry coupled to the input interface and configured to construct the datastream in a format suitable for transmission over the network that includes the at least one of the media programs, the datastream including images in a first resolution, wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to extract first attribute data representing data for identifying the media program from other media items, and to detect a transition in the media item received from the media source wherein the transition is detected by detecting a user command associated with a channel change in the media source, detecting changes in XDS (extended Data Services) data received from the media source, detecting changes in an image received from the media source, or comparing first text data extracted from first banner information contained in the first video sequence with second text data extracted from second banner information contained within the second video sequence; and

a network interface configured to transmit the media stream and the first attribute data of the media item to the client device over the network.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the first attribute data comprises at least one of data from an electronic program guide, closed caption data, and XDS (extended Data Services) data.

12. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the attribute data is transmitted over the network in a first channel having lower priority than a second channel via which the datastream is transmitted.

13. A method of selecting and storing media items received from a personal media broadcaster via a network, comprising:

receiving a first video sequence of a first media item from the personal media broadcaster;

receiving a second video sequence of a second media item subsequent to the first video sequence of the first media item;

receiving first attribute data associated with the second media item from the personal media broadcaster, the first attribute data representing data for identifying the second media item from other media items;

receiving second attribute data associated with the second media item from the personal media broadcaster, the second attribute data representing data for identifying the second media item that is disparate from the first attribute data and

identifying the second media item using the first and second attribute data responsive to detecting a transition from the first video sequence to the second video sequence.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising sending the attributes of the first media item and a portion of the data stream selected by the user to a media management server via the network for sharing with other users.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the first attribute data comprises banner information embedded in an image in the first video sequence.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising receiving via the network text data generated from the banner information using a character recognition server responsive to sending a portion of the image including the banner to the character recognition server via the network.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the first attribute data is received via a first channel, and the first video sequence is received via a second channel having a higher priority than the first channel.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein the second attribute data comprises data for an electronic program guide, closed caption data, and XDS (extended Data Services) data.