Method and system for video stream personalization

• US 9,137,497 B2
• Filed: 04/11/2007
• Issued: 09/15/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/11/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Tofigh, Mostafa, Hushyar, Kaveh
• Primary Examiner(s): Bruckart, Benjamin R
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bantamoi, Anthony
• Application Number:
  US11/786,663
• Publication Number:
  US 20080254740A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,079 Days
• Field of Search: 725 9- 21, 725/35, 725/28, 345/419
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/743 a collection of video files or sequences
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 19/20 Editing of 3D images, e.g. changing shapes or colours, aligning objects or positioning parts
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 3/4092 Image resolution transcoding, e.g. by using client-server architectures
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2343 involving reformatting operations of video signals for distribution or compliance with end-user requests or end-user device requirements video transcoding H04N19/40; media packet handling at the source H04L65/762
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234309 by transcoding between formats or standards, e.g. from MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 or from Quicktime to Realvideo conversion of standards in analog television systems H04N7/01
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234345 the reformatting operation being performed only on part of the stream, e.g. a region of the image or a time segment
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234354 by altering signal-to-noise ratio parameters, e.g. requantization
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234363 by altering the spatial resolution, e.g. for clients with a lower screen resolution
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2353 specifically adapted to content descriptors, e.g. coding, compressing or processing of metadata
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2668 Creating a channel for a dedicated end-user group, e.g. insertion of targeted commercials based on end-user profiles information retrieval from the Internet by querying with filtering and personalisation G06F16/9535; arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast H04H20/10; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; adaptation of message content in packet-switching networks H04L51/063
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4318 by altering the content in the rendering process, e.g. blanking, blurring or masking an image region image enhancement or restoration in general G06T5/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/435 Processing of additional data, e.g. decrypting of additional data, reconstructing software from modules extracted from the transport stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44008 involving operations for analysing video streams, e.g. detecting features or characteristics in the video stream arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of video in broadcast systems H04H60/59
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/440218 by transcoding between formats or standards, e.g. from MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 conversion of standards in analogue television systems H04N7/01
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/440263 by altering the spatial resolution, e.g. for displaying on a connected PDA
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4532 involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/462 Content or additional data management, e.g. creating a master electronic program guide from data received from the Internet and a Head-end, controlling the complexity of a video stream by scaling the resolution or bit-rate based on the client capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4828 for searching program descriptors retrieval of video data G06F16/739
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17327 with deferred transmission or handling of upstream communications

Abstract

A method and system for video stream personalization. A personalization policy may be accessed. The personalization policy may include an image identification and an image alteration to a video image identified by the image identification. At least one instance of the video image may be identified in a video stream. An output stream may be produced from the video stream in response to the personalization policy. The output stream may include the image alteration to the video image.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a system comprising a processor, a video stream comprising two-dimensional images;

accessing, by the system, a personalization policy, the personalization policy including an image identification and an image alteration to a video image from the video stream identified by the image identification;

selecting, by the system, a target portion of the image based on the personalization policy, wherein the selecting is performed automatically according to the personalization policy;

generating, by the system, a three-dimensional image of the target portion of the video stream during the receiving of the video stream based on the personalization policy;

enhancing, by the system, a resolution of the three-dimensional image of the video image during the receiving of the video stream based on the personalization policy as an enhanced resolution; and

producing, by the system, an output stream from the video stream in response to the personalization policy, the output stream including the image alteration to the video image, wherein the image alteration comprises the three-dimensional image of the video image and the enhanced resolution of the three-dimensional image.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting comprises:

accessing, by the system, the image identification from a video image database; and

matching, by the system, the target portion of the video image in the video stream with the image identification.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the selecting comprises matching, by the system, an image name in metadata of the video stream with a name of the image identification.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein producing the output stream from the video stream in response to the personalization policy comprises:

tagging, by the system, the target portion in the video stream as a tagged instance; and

transcoding, by the system, an output stream from the video stream in response to the personalization policy and the tagged instance, the output stream including metadata, the metadata including the image alteration to the video image at the tagged instance in the output stream.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting, by the system, the output stream to a requestor via a unicast protocol.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the image alteration further includes one of:

a replacement image for the video image,

a selection of an image in the output stream as a new video image, or

a deselection of the video image in the output stream.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the image alteration overlays the video image within the output stream.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the generating of the three-dimensional image of the video image from the two-dimensional images comprises performing the image alteration limited to the target portion of a frame of the video stream during the receiving of the video stream.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the personalization policy comprises an image identification and an image alteration, wherein the image identification defines an image to be modified, and wherein the image alteration defines a type of alteration to be applied to the image to be modified.

10. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a system comprising a processor, a video stream comprising two-dimensional images;

selecting, by the system, an image identification for a video image in the video stream;

generating, by the system, a three-dimensional image of the video image during the receiving of the video stream;

associating, by the system, an image alteration with the video image; and

writing, by the system, a personalization policy for the video image, the personalization policy having the image identification and an image alteration to the video image represented by the image identification; and

selecting, by the system, a target portion of the image based on the personalization policy, wherein the selecting is performed automatically according to the personalization policy, and wherein the image alteration to the video image is a transformation of an identified video image and is related to the identified video image by enhancing a resolution of the three-dimensional image of the video image based on the personalization policy during the receiving of the video stream.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein selecting an image identification for a video image in a video stream comprises receiving, by the system, the image identification for a video image in the video stream from a user.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein receiving the image identification for a video image in the video stream from a user further comprises storing, by the system, the video image identification in a video image database.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein receiving the image identification for a video image in the video stream from a user comprises receiving, by the system, the image identification for a video image and an image name for the image identification, and wherein storing the video image identification in the video image database comprises storing, by the system, the video image identification and the image name in the video image database.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein associating an image alteration for the video image further comprises:

receiving, by the system, a defined image alteration from a user; and

associating, by the system, the defined image alteration with the video image.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the associating further comprises storing, by the system, an association of the defined image alteration with the video image identification in a video image database.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein the associating an image alteration for the video image further comprises dynamically, by the system, associating an image alteration with the video image from an association stored in a video image database.

17. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a system comprising a processor, a video stream comprising two-dimensional images;

receiving, by the system, a first request to alter an appearance of a video image from the video stream within an output stream;

providing, by the system, a second request including an image identification of the video image and an image alternation to the video image to a network resource;

selecting, by the system, a target portion of the image based on a modified personalization policy, wherein the selecting is performed automatically according to the personalization policy; and

receiving, by the system, a modified output stream according to a-the modified personalization policy, the modified output stream including the image alteration to the video image, wherein the image alteration comprises a three-dimensional image of the video image and an enhanced resolution of the three-dimensional image during the receiving of the video stream.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising identifying, by the system, that the first request includes the image identification of the video image and a selection of an image alteration to the video image.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the image alteration includes one of:

a replacement image for the video image, a selection of an image in the output stream as a new video image, or a deselection of the video image in the output stream.

20. An apparatus, comprising:

a memory to store instructions; and

a processor coupled to the memory, wherein responsive to executing the instructions, the processor performs operations comprising;

receiving an output stream comprising two-dimensional images;

receiving a first request to alter appearance of a video image within the output stream;

providing a second request, the second request including an image identification of the video image and an image alteration to the video image to a network resource;

selecting a modified target portion of the image based on a modified personalization policy, wherein the selecting is performed automatically according to the modified personalization policy; and

receiving a modified output stream in response to the a-modified personalization policy, the modified output stream including a three-dimensional image of the video image and an enhanced resolution of the three-dimensional image as the image alteration to the video image during the receiving of the output stream.

21. The apparatus of claim 20, further comprising a storage module to store the modified personalization policy.