Methods and systems for disambiguation of an identification of a sample of a media stream

• US 8,816,179 B2
• Filed: 05/01/2013
• Issued: 08/26/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/04/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Shazam Entertainment Limited (Apple Inc.)
• Inventors: Wang, Avery Li-Chun
• Primary Examiner(s): Warren, David S.
• Application Number:
  US13/875,035
• Publication Number:
  US 20130243205A1
• Time in Patent Office: 482 Days
• Field of Search: 84600-604, 846/16, 846/54, 700/94, 434/307.A
• US Class Current: 84/603
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/95 Retrieval from the web
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 1/361 Recording/reproducing of accompaniment for use with an external source, e.g. karaoke systems
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2220/011 Lyrics displays, e.g. for karaoke applications
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/00 Speech or audio signals analysis-synthesis techniques for redundancy reduction, e.g. in vocoders; Coding or decoding of speech or audio signals, using source filter models or psychoacoustic analysis in musical instruments G10H
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/48 specially adapted for particular use

Abstract

Systems and methods of synchronizing media are provided. A client device may be used to capture a sample of a media stream being rendered by a media rendering source. The client device sends the sample to a position identification module to determine a time offset indicating a position in the media stream corresponding to the sampling time of the sample, and optionally a timescale ratio indicating a speed at which the media stream is being rendered by the media rendering source based on a reference speed of the media stream. The client device calculates a real-time offset using a present time, a timestamp of the media sample, the time offset, and optionally the timescale ratio. The client device then renders a second media stream at a position corresponding to the real-time offset to be in synchrony to the media stream being rendered by the media rendering source.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a media sample of a media stream being rendered by a media rendering source;

determining, by a computing device, a plurality of media recordings that are potential matches to the media sample; and

providing, by the computing device to a client device, an alignment file including information of features of one of the plurality of media recordings, wherein the features in the alignment file of one of the plurality of media recordings are anticipated to appear in the media stream at predetermined times.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining the plurality of media recordings that are potential matches to the media sample based on a temporal correspondence of features of the plurality of media recordings to features of the media sample.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining the plurality of media recordings that are potential matches to the media sample based on a time position indicating a time offset of the media sample into the media stream.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the alignment file includes a number of fingerprints of a given media recording of the plurality of media recordings that occur at landmark time positions in the media recording which are after a time at which content of the media sample is present in the media recording.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a plurality of fingerprints of the media sample at corresponding landmarks so as to identify fingerprint and landmark pairs of the media sample; and

determining the plurality of media recordings that are potential matches to the media sample based on a comparison of fingerprint and landmark pairs of the media recordings to the fingerprints and landmark pairs of the media sample.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining from the plurality of media recordings a match to the media sample; and

providing an alignment file of the match that includes information of features of the match that are anticipated to appear in the media stream at predetermined times.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the media sample comprises receiving the media sample from the client device.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the media sample comprises receiving portions of the media sample incrementally over time, and wherein the method further comprises:

continuing to determine which of the plurality of media recordings are potential matches to the media sample based on the temporal correspondence of features of the media recordings to features of the media sample as received over time until sufficient data is received to identify a matching media recording unambiguously.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the media sample comprises receiving portions of the media sample incrementally over time, and wherein the method further comprises:

continuing to determine which of the plurality of media recordings are potential matches to the media sample based on the temporal correspondence of features of the media recordings to features of the media sample as received over time until a media recording is found having a threshold number of temporal correspondences.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the media sample comprises receiving portions of the media sample incrementally over time, and wherein the method further comprises:

providing information indicating a match to the media sample based on an unambiguous identification of the media sample.

11. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored therein instructions, that when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform functions comprising:

receiving a media sample of a media stream being rendered by a media rendering source;

determining a plurality of media recordings that are potential matches to the media sample; and

providing, to a client device, an alignment file including information of features of one of the plurality of media recordings, wherein the features in the alignment file of one of the plurality of media recordings are anticipated to appear in the media stream at predetermined times.

12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the functions further comprise determining the plurality of media recordings that are potential matches to the media sample based on a temporal correspondence of features of the plurality of media recordings to features of the media sample.

13. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the functions further comprise determining the plurality of media recordings that are potential matches to the media sample based on a time position indicating a time offset of the media sample into the media stream.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the alignment file includes a number of fingerprints of a given media recording of the plurality of media recordings that occur at landmark time positions in the media recording which are after a time at which content of the media sample is present in the media recording.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the functions further comprise:

determining a plurality of fingerprints of the media sample at corresponding landmarks so as to identify fingerprint and landmark pairs of the media sample; and

determining the plurality of media recordings that are potential matches to the media sample based on a comparison of fingerprint and landmark pairs of the media recordings to the fingerprints and landmark pairs of the media sample.

16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the functions further comprise:

determining from the plurality of media recordings a match to the media sample; and

providing an alignment file of the match that includes information of features of the match that are anticipated to appear in the media stream at predetermined times.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein receiving the media sample comprises receiving the media sample from the client device.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein receiving the media sample comprises receiving portions of the media sample incrementally over time, and wherein the functions further comprise:

continuing to determine which of the plurality of media recordings are potential matches to the media sample based on the temporal correspondence of features of the media recordings to features of the media sample as received over time until sufficient data is received to identify the media sample unambiguously.

19. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein receiving the media sample comprises receiving portions of the media sample incrementally over time, and wherein the functions further comprise:

continuing to determine which of the plurality of media recordings are potential matches to the media sample based on the temporal correspondence of features of the media recordings to features of the media sample as received over time until a media recording is found having a threshold number of temporal correspondences.

20. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein receiving the media sample comprises receiving portions of the media sample incrementally over time, and wherein the functions further comprise:

providing information indicating a match to the media sample based on an unambiguous identification of the media sample.