Media monitoring, management and information system

• US 8,806,517 B2
• Filed: 05/10/2010
• Issued: 08/12/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/15/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: IP Acquisitions, LLC
• Original Assignee: Verance Corporation
• Inventors: Petrovic, Rade, Tehranchi, Babak, Jemili, Kanaan, Winograd, Joseph M., Angelico, Dean-Anthony
• Primary Examiner(s): Pendleton, Brian T
• Assistant Examiner(s): Gee, Alexander
• Application Number:
  US12/777,204
• Publication Number:
  US 20100287579A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,555 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 725/9
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/14 for monitoring programmes
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/31 using in-band signals, e.g. subsonic or cue signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 2201/50 characterised by the use of watermarks
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/258 Client or end-user data management, e.g. managing client capabilities, user preferences or demographics, processing of multiple end-users preferences to derive collaborative data arrangements for services using the result on the distributing side of broadcast systems H04H60/66; profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4394 involving operations for analysing the audio stream, e.g. detecting features or characteristics in audio streams arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of audio in broadcast systems H04H60/58
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8352 involving content or source identification data, e.g. Unique Material Identifier [UMID]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8358 involving watermark protecting executable software by watermarking G06F21/16; image watermarking in general G06T1/0021; watermarks inserted in still images for transmission purposes H04N1/32144; inserting watermarks during video coding H04N19/467
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for monitoring transmissions of media content (such as audio and audiovisual content) in order to obtain independent and objective data regarding the use of specific media content recordings or works within the transmissions. Processing and reporting of such data is provided in various ways to serve a variety of business needs. Methods for employing content identification technology to efficiently and automatically obtain reliable, accurate, and precise monitoring data are also disclosed. Various information products and services based on such monitoring systems are proposed.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, at a monitoring site, a content comprising identification information that is imperceptibly and repeatedly embedded therein;

processing the received content to extract multiple instances of the identification information having identical values; and

estimating a temporal extent of the content in accordance with the multiple instances of the identification information having identical values, wherein estimating the temporal extent of the content comprises determining a spacing between at least two instances of the multiple instances of the identification information having identical values to ascertain whether the at least two of the multiple instances of the identification information belong to the same content clip.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the identification information comprises an embedder identification code and/or a self-assigned code.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

accessing a database, the database comprising embedder log information associated with a plurality of contents;

searching the database for embedder log information that matches with the identification information extracted from the content; and

if the identification information fully matches the embedder log information associated with at least one of the plurality of contents, storing at least a portion of the embedder log information that produced a match and the estimated extent of the content for report generation.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein:

if the identification information partially matches the embedder log information associated with at least one of the plurality of contents, storing at least a portion of the identification information for further processing.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

receiving additional embedder log information, and wherein the further processing comprises searching the stored identification information to obtain a match with the additional embedder log information.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein:

if the identification information does not fully or partially match the embedder log information, storing at least a portion of the identification information for further processing.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

receiving additional embedder log information, and wherein the further processing comprises searching the stored identification information to obtain a match with the additional embedder log information.

8. The method of claim 3, wherein the accessing, the searching, and the storing are carried out at the monitoring site and/or a control center.

9. The method of claim 3, wherein the database further comprises metadata associated with each of the plurality of contents, the metadata comprising:

an original duration of each content,

a type of each content,

a title of each content,

an owner of each content, and/or

an industry code associated with each content.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein

the content comprises two or more different embedded identification information;

and

the processing comprises extracting multiple instances of the two or more different embedded identification information and determining a distribution path of the content in accordance with at least one of the extracted identification information.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the two or more different embedded identification information are carried within two or more watermark layers.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein at least one of the two or more different embedded identification information identifies a transmission channel selected from a group of transmission channels consisting of:

a broadcast network,

a broadcast stream, and

an internet stream.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein at least one of the two or more different embedded identification information identifies an entity associated with the content selected from a group of entities consisting of:

a broadcaster, and

a broadcast affiliate.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein at least one of the two or more different embedded identification information identifies a content type selected from a group of content types consisting of:

a prerecorded music,

a live music,

a radio program material,

a television program material, and

a broadcast advertisement.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein determining the distribution path comprises differentiating portions of the content that originated from a network broadcast from portions of the content that did not originate from the network broadcast.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein determining the distribution path comprises identifying time periods during which a network affiliated local station carries a network broadcast program.

17. The method of claim 10, wherein determining the distribution path comprises identifying an inclusion of a network advertisement in a local broadcast.

18. The method of claim 10, wherein at least one of the two or more different embedded identification information is used to identify whether the received content has been broadcast in whole, in part, and/or a multiple number of times.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the identification is carried out in accordance with metadata stored at a database.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the identification information is embedded in an audio portion the content.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein the identification information is embedded in a temporal and/or a frequency domain.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein the identification information is used to estimate a date, a time, a location of reception, a duration, a quality, an origin and/or a method of transmission of the content.

23. The method of claim 1, wherein the monitoring site receives the content from one or more transmission channels.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the one or more transmission channels comprise a broadcast terrestrial channel, an Internet channel, a broadcast cable channel or a broadcast satellite channel.

25. The method of claim 1, wherein estimating the temporal extent of the content comprises estimating a start-time, an end-time and/or a duration associated with the content.

28. The method of claim 1, wherein estimating the temporal extent of the content comprises comparing a spacing between at least two instances of the multiple instances of the identification information having identical values to a pre-defined spacing to determine one of the following:

that the at least two of the multiple instances of the identification information having identical values belong to the same content clip, or

that the at least two of the multiple instances of the identification information having identical values belong to different content clips that are received in a back-to-back fashion.

26. A device, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory including program code, wherein the program code, when executed by the processor, configures the device to;

receive a content comprising identification information that is imperceptibly and repeatedly embedded therein;

process the received content to extract multiple instances of the embedded identification information having identical values; and

estimate a temporal extent of the content in accordance with the multiple instances of the embedded information having identical values, wherein estimation of the temporal extent of the content comprises determining a spacing between at least two instances of the multiple instances of the identification information having identical values to ascertain whether the at least two of the multiple instances of the identification information belong to the same content clip.

27. A computer program, embodied on a non-transitory computer-readable medium, comprising:

computer code for receiving a content comprising identification information that is imperceptibly and repeatedly embedded therein;

computer code for processing the received content to extract multiple instances of the embedded identification information having identical values; and

computer code for estimating a temporal extent of the content in accordance with the multiple instances of the embedded information having identical values, wherein estimating the temporal extent of the content comprises determining a spacing between at least two instances of the multiple instances of the identification information having identical values to ascertain whether the at least two of the multiple instances of the identification information belong to the same content clip.