Methods and systems for identifying content types

• US 8,825,188 B2
• Filed: 05/31/2013
• Issued: 09/02/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/04/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cyber Resonance Corporation
• Original Assignee: Troy Christopher Stone, Wayne Roy Lappi
• Inventors: Stone, Troy Christopher, Lappi, Wayne Roy
• Primary Examiner(s): Goins, Davetta W
• Assistant Examiner(s): SELLERS, DANIEL R
• Application Number:
  US13/906,895
• Publication Number:
  US 20130322633A1
• Time in Patent Office: 459 Days
• Field of Search: 700/94, 381/2, 704/234, 386248-251, 386/254, 341/61, 341/131
• US Class Current: 700/94
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/008 Multichannel audio signal coding or decoding using interchannel correlation to reduce redundancy, e.g. joint-stereo, intensity-coding or matrixing
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 21/0364 for improving intelligibility
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/21 the extracted parameters being power information
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/54 for retrieval
• 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 21/8106 involving special audio data, e.g. different tracks for different languages
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/814 comprising emergency warnings arrangements specially adapted for emergency or urgency in broadcast systems H04H20/59; arrangements for providing alarms, notifications, alerts to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1895
• CPC Class Codes: H04S 3/00 Systems employing more than two channels, e.g. quadraphonic H04S5/00, H04S7/00 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04S 3/008 in which the audio signals are in digital form, i.e. employing more than two discrete digital channels data reduction aspects thereof based on psychoacoustics G10L19/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04S 5/005 of the pseudo five- or more-channel type, e.g. virtual surround

Abstract

System and methods are provided configured to reveal differences in content, such as commercial and program content. An input port may be configured to receive a first plurality of bit stream audio channels. A circuit may optionally be configured to enhance artifacting, noise, and/or bit rate errors and may optionally reduce redundant signal information. A signal processor circuit may be configured to transform the first plurality of bit stream audio channels into a frequency domain. A spectrum analysis system may be configured to compare properties of the first plurality of bit stream audio channels to one or more reference signals. An identification circuit may be configured to identify different content types included in the first plurality of bit stream audio channels.

Claims

1. A method of processing audio signals to identify content, method comprising:

receiving a first plurality of bit stream audio channels;

enhancing, using a first circuit, artifacting, noise, and/or aliasing with respect to the first plurality of bit stream audio channels at least in part by sampling the plurality of bit stream audio channels;

analyzing, using a signal analysis system, the first plurality of bit stream audio channels after performing the enhancement of the artifacting, noise, and/or aliasing to identify content type included in the first plurality of bit stream audio channels by measuring;

at least signal noise, and

one or more of the following;

bandwidth,

spectral energy,

convergence,

aliasing, or

spectral symmetry;

based at least in part on the analysis, identifying, using an identification circuit, commercial content included in the first plurality of bit stream audio channels;

wherein the enhancement of the artifacting, noise and/or aliasing is performed at least in part by adding noise to the first plurality of bit stream audio channels by an amount sufficient to reveal signal to noise variance in non-commercial content included in the first plurality of bit stream audio channels,

identifying commercial content included in the first plurality of bit stream audio channels further comprises utilizing loudness, noise and frequency spectrum analyzers in identifying commercial content, and

two or more of the first plurality of bit stream audio channels are summed, combined, or subtracted and then down mixed to one or more channels to reduce redundant signal information and decoder channel modes.

2. A method of processing audio signals to identify content, the method comprising:

receiving a first plurality of bit stream audio channels;

enhancing, using a first circuit, artifacting, noise, and/or aliasing with respect to the first plurality of bit stream audio channels at least in part by sampling the plurality of bit stream audio channels;

analyzing, using a signal analysis system, the first plurality of bit stream audio channels after performing the enhancement of the artifacting, noise, and/or aliasing to identify content type included in the first plurality of bit stream audio channels by measuring;

at least signal noise, and

one or more of the following;

bandwidth,

spectral energy,

convergence,

aliasing, or

spectral symmetry;

based at least in part on the analysis, identifying, using an identification circuit, commercial content included in the first plurality of bit stream audio channels;

wherein the enhancement of the artifacting, noise and/or aliasing is performed at least in part by adding noise to the first plurality of bit stream audio channels by an amount sufficient to reveal signal to noise variance in non-commercial content included in the first plurality of bit stream audio channels.

3. A method of processing audio signals to identify content, the method comprising:

receiving a first plurality of bit stream audio channels;

enhancing, using a first circuit, artifacting, noise, and/or aliasing with respect to the first plurality of bit stream audio channels at least in part by sampling the plurality of bit stream audio channels;

analyzing, using a signal analysis system, the first plurality of bit stream audio channels after performing the enhancement of the artifacting, noise, and/or aliasing to identify content type included in the first plurality of bit stream audio channels by measuring;

at least signal noise, and

one or more of the following;

bandwidth,

spectral energy,

convergence,

aliasing, or

spectral symmetry;

based at least in part on the analysis, identifying, using an identification circuit, commercial content included in the first plurality of bit stream audio channels;

the method further comprising, prior to performing the analysis, modulating phase and frequencies within the first plurality of bit stream audio channels to reduce redundant signal information.

4. The method as defined in claim 3, wherein the enhancement of the artifacting, noise and/or aliasing is performed at least in part by performing an analog to digital conversion on the first plurality of bit stream audio channels.

5. The method as defined in claim 3, wherein identifying commercial content included in the first plurality of bit stream audio channels further comprises utilizing loudness, noise and frequency spectrum analyzers in identifying commercial content.

6. The method as defined in claim 3, wherein prior to performing the analysis, two or more of the first plurality of bit stream audio channels are summed, combined, or subtracted and then down mixed to one or more channels to reduce redundant signal information and decoder channel modes.

7. The method as defined in claim 3, the method further comprising, prior to performing the analysis, processing the first plurality of channels to modify spectral content.

8. The method as defined in claim 3, the method further comprising utilizing both frequency and time domain analyzers in identifying the commercial content.

9. The method as defined in claim 3, the method further comprising utilizing frequency-domain wavelet spectrum analysis in identifying the commercial content.

10. A method of processing audio signals to identify content, the method comprising:

receiving a first plurality of bit stream audio channels;

enhancing, using a first circuit, artifacting, noise, and/or aliasing with respect to the first plurality of bit stream audio channels at least in part by sampling the plurality of bit stream audio channels;

analyzing, using a signal analysis system, the first plurality of bit stream audio channels after performing the enhancement of the artifacting, noise, and/or aliasing to identify content type included in the first plurality of bit stream audio channels by measuring;

at least signal noise, and

one or more of the following;

bandwidth,

spectral energy,

convergence,

aliasing, or

spectral symmetry;

based at least in part on the analysis, identifying, using an identification circuit, commercial content included in the first plurality of bit stream audio channels;

the method further comprising, prior to performing the analysis, processing two or more of the first plurality of channels utilizing amplitude modulation to increase the variation in amplitude and de-correlate amplitude of the channels within the first plurality of channel and reduce acoustic power correlations between two or more of the first plurality of channels.

11. A method of processing audio signals to identify content, the method comprising:

receiving a first plurality of bit stream audio channels;

enhancing, using a first circuit, artifacting, noise, and/or aliasing with respect to the first plurality of bit stream audio channels at least in part by sampling the plurality of bit stream audio channels;

analyzing, using a signal analysis system, the first plurality of bit stream audio channels after performing the enhancement of the artifacting, noise, and/or aliasing to identify content type included in the first plurality of bit stream audio channels by measuring;

at least signal noise, and

one or more of the following;

bandwidth,

spectral energy,

convergence,

aliasing, or

spectral symmetry;

based at least in part on the analysis, identifying, using an identification circuit, commercial content included in the first plurality of bit stream audio channels;

the method further comprising performing a phase inversion on a first channel signal and summing the phase inverted first channel signal with a second channel signal in the first plurality of bit stream audio channels.

12. The method as defined in claim 11, wherein the signal analysis system utilizes one or more RMS (root mean square) detection signal noise analyzers.

13. A content identification system, comprising:

an input circuit configured to receive a first plurality of bit stream audio channels;

a circuit configured to enhance artifacting, noise, and/or aliasing with respect to the first plurality of bit stream audio channels;

a signal analysis system configured to analyze the first plurality of bit stream audio channels after the enhancement of the artifacting, noise, and/or aliasing is performed to identify content type included in the first plurality of bit stream audio channels by measuring at least signal noise, and one or more of the following;

bandwidth,

spectral energy,

convergence,

aliasing, or

spectral symmetry;

an identification circuit configured to identify, based at least in part on the analysis, commercial content included in the first plurality of bit stream audio channels

a modulator circuit configured to modulate phase and frequencies within the first plurality of bit stream audio channels to reduce redundant signal information prior to the analysis of the first plurality of bit stream audio channels by the signal analysis system.

14. A method of processing decoded signals to reveal differences in content, the method comprising:

receiving a first plurality of bit stream audio channels;

enhancing artifacting, noise, and bit rate error utilizing down sampling and bit-depth reduction with respect to the first plurality of bit stream audio channels;

reducing redundant signal information included in the first plurality of bit stream audio channels utilizing phase shift keying;

transforming the first plurality of bit stream audio channels into a frequency domain;

after enhancing artifacting, noise, and bit rate error and transforming the first plurality of bit stream audio channels into the frequency domain, using spectrum analysis to compare properties of the first plurality of bit stream audio channels to one or more reference signals; and

based at least on the comparison, identifying different content types included in the first plurality of bit stream audio channels.

15. The method as defined in claim 14, wherein enhancing artifacting, noise, and bit rate error is configured to result in increased aliasing, and losses in bandwidth, spectral energy, symmetry, and/or convergence of non-commercial content included in the first plurality of bit stream audio channels.

16. The method as defined in claim 14, wherein transforming the first plurality of bit stream audio channels into the frequency domain is performed using discrete cosine transforms.

17. The method as defined in claim 14, wherein enhancing artifacting further comprises enhancing aliasing and distortion.

18. The method as defined in claim 14, the method further comprising utilizing transcoding to increase differences in channels included in the first plurality of bit stream audio channels.

19. The method as defined in claim 18, wherein the transcoding is lossy to lossy.

20. The method as defined in claim 18, wherein transcoded channels are down-sampled at less than half the highest frequency of a reference frequency spectrum of the first plurality of bit channels, and non-commercial content included in the first plurality of bit stream audio channels is unable to be reproduced in the frequency spectrum.

21. The method as defined in claim 14, the method further comprising utilizing phase shift keying to reduce redundant information in the first plurality of bit stream audio channels.

22. The method as defined in claim 14, the method further comprising down mixing two or more channels in the first plurality of bit stream audio channels to fewer channels to reduce redundant signal information and decoder channel modes.

23. The method as defined in claim 14, the method further comprising inverting phase polarity of at least one down mixed channel.

24. The method as defined in claim 14, the method further comprising performing low pass filtering at less than half the highest frequency of at least one channel in the first plurality of bit stream audio channels and then performing down sampling.

25. The method as defined in claim 14, the method further comprising enhancing consistency in reproduction of commercial content relative to non-commercial content included in the first plurality of bit stream audio channels by sampling the first plurality of bit stream audio channels so that bit depth made less than a maximum tolerable loss of rate distortion.

26. The method as defined in claim 14, the method further comprising decreasing channel separation between two or more channels in the first plurality of decoded bit stream audio channels.

27. A system configured to reveal differences in content, the system comprising:

an input port configured to receive a first plurality of bit stream audio channels;

a circuit configured to enhance artifacting, noise, and bit rate error utilizing down sampling and bit-depth reduction with respect to the first plurality of bit stream audio channels;

a circuit configured to reduce redundant signal information included in the first plurality of bit stream audio channels utilizing phase shift keying;

a signal processor circuit configured to transform the first plurality of bit stream audio channels into a frequency domain;

a spectrum analysis system configured to compare properties of the first plurality of bit stream audio channels to one or more reference signals; and

an identification circuit configured to identify, based at least on the comparison, different content types included in the first plurality of bit stream audio channels.