Method and apparatus for selection of content from a stream of data

• US 9,143,718 B2
• Filed: 02/27/2013
• Issued: 09/22/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/12/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Roku, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Gracenote, Inc. (RR Donnelley & Sons Company)
• Inventors: Nagorski, Igor A, Nesvadba, Jan A, Aarts, Ronaldus M
• Primary Examiner(s): JONES, HEATHER RAE
• Application Number:
  US13/778,439
• Publication Number:
  US 20130302011A1
• Time in Patent Office: 937 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/467 characterised by the embedded information being invisible, e.g. watermarking
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234363 by altering the spatial resolution, e.g. for clients with a lower screen resolution
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234381 by altering the temporal resolution, e.g. decreasing the frame rate by frame skipping
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/235 Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2368 Multiplexing of audio and video streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2389 Multiplex stream processing, e.g. multiplex stream encrypting
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23892 involving embedding information at multiplex stream level, e.g. embedding a watermark at packet level
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2541 Rights Management protecting software against unauthorised usage in a vending or licensing environment G06F21/10; security in data switching network management H04L41/28; security management or policies for network security H04L63/20; access security in wireless networks H04W12/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4135 external recorder interface circuits between an apparatus for recording television signals and a television receiver H04N5/775
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4341 Demultiplexing of audio and video streams
• 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 21/4383 Accessing a communication channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4385 Multiplex stream processing, e.g. multiplex stream decrypting
• 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 21/44016 involving splicing one content stream with another content stream, e.g. for substituting a video clip
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4622 Retrieving content or additional data from different sources, e.g. from a broadcast channel and the Internet web site content organization and management for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/958; transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82; stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services including data channel over packet-switching network H04L12/1859
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4667 Processing of monitored end-user data, e.g. trend analysis based on the log file of viewer selections
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8133 specifically related to the content, e.g. biography of the actors in a movie, detailed information about an article seen in a video program
• 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 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8549 : Creating video summaries, e.g. movie trailer retrieval in video databases by using presentations in form of a video summary G06F16/739
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/50 : Tuning indicators; Automatic tuning control

Abstract

A main stream contains successive content elements of video and/or audio information that encode video and/or audio information at a first data rate. A computation circuit (144) computes main fingerprints from the successive content elements. A reference stream is received having a second data rate lower than the first data rate. The reference stream defines a sequence of the reference fingerprints. A comparator unit (144) compares the main fingerprints with the reference fingerprints. The main stream is monitored for the presence of inserted content elements between original content elements, where the original content elements have main fingerprints that match successive reference fingerprints and the inserted content elements have main fingerprints that do not match reference fingerprints. Rendering of inserted content elements to be skipped. In an embodiment when more than one content element matches only one is rendered. In another embodiment matching is used to control zapping to or from the main stream. In another embodiment matching is used to control linking of separately received mark-up information such as subtitles to points in the main stream.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a processor configured by a comparator unit to;

receive a main datastream and a reference datastream,

the main datastream including main content elements intermixed with inserted content elements,

the reference datastream having a different data rate than the main datastream and including reference fingerprints of the main content elements of the main datastream;

compute main fingerprints from at least some of the main content elements included in the main datastream; and

a control unit configured to select the main content elements from the main datastream based on a comparison of the main fingerprints to the reference fingerprints.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the reference datastream includes no fingerprints of the inserted content elements that are included in the main datastream.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein:

the control unit is configured to cause a channel selector to skip the main datastream during a channel change in response to the reference datastream including no fingerprints of the inserted content elements.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the main fingerprints match the reference fingerprints; and

the control unit is configured to include the main content elements in a rendering of the main datastream in response to the main fingerprints matching the reference fingerprints.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the main fingerprints mismatch the reference fingerprints; and

the control unit is configured to exclude the main content elements from a rendering of the main datastream in response to the main fingerprints mismatching the reference fingerprints.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the comparator unit configures the processor to detect duplicate main fingerprints that match one of the reference fingerprints,

one of the duplicate main fingerprints being computed from a main content element among the main content elements;

the control unit is configured to exclude the main content element from a rendering of the main datastream in response to the detecting of the duplicate main fingerprints.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising:

a channel selection unit configured to switch a rendering of the main datastream to render a further datastream in response to a determination that the main fingerprints mismatch the reference fingerprints.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein:

the channel selection unit is configured to restore the rendering of the main datastream in response to a further determination that further main fingerprints match further reference fingerprints.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the main fingerprints match the reference fingerprints; and

the apparatus further comprises

a storage device configured to store the main content elements as a data-reduced version of the main datastream without the inserted content elements.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the reference datastream further contains mark-up information along with the low resolution versions of the main content elements;

the main fingerprints match the reference fingerprints; and

the apparatus further comprises;

a storage device configured to store the received mark-up information with links that correlate the mark-up information to the main content elements.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein:

the mark-up information includes at least one of sub-title, an alternative language channel, a menu, or a chapter marker.

12. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the comparator unit configures the processor to receive the main datastream and the reference datastream from mutually different distribution media.

13. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the main content elements include segments of a motion picture; and

the inserted content elements include commercials.

14. A method comprising:

receiving a main datastream and a reference datastream,

the main datastream including main content elements intermixed with inserted content elements,

the reference datastream having a different data rate than the main datastream and including reference fingerprints of the main content elements of the main datastream;

using a processor, computing main fingerprints from at least some of the main content elements included in the main datastream; and

select the main content elements from the main datastream based on a comparison of the main fingerprints to the reference fingerprints.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein:

the reference datastream contains no fingerprints of the inserted content elements contained in the main datastream.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein:

the selecting of the main content elements is based on a determination that the main fingerprints match the reference fingerprints; and

the method further comprises

including the main content elements in a rendering of the main datastream in response to the main fingerprints matching the reference fingerprints.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein:

the selecting of the main content elements is based on a determination that the main fingerprints mismatch the reference fingerprints; and

the method further comprises

excluding the main content elements from a rendering of the main datastream in response to the main fingerprints mismatching the reference fingerprints.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein:

detecting duplicate main fingerprints that match one of the reference fingerprints,

one of the duplicate main fingerprints being computed from a main content element among the main content elements;

excluding the main content element from a rendering of the main datastream in response to the detecting of the duplicate main fingerprints.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein:

switching a rendering of the main datastream to render a further datastream in response to a determination that the main fingerprints mismatch the reference fingerprints.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein:

restoring the rendering of the main datastream in response to a further determination that further main fingerprints match further reference fingerprints.

21. The method of claim 14, wherein:

the selecting of the main content elements is based on a determination that the main fingerprints match the reference fingerprints; and

the method further comprises

storing the main content elements as a data-reduced version of the main datastream without the inserted content elements.

22. The method of claim 14, wherein:

the reference datastream further contains mark-up information along with the low resolution versions of the main content elements;

the selecting of the main content elements is based on a determination that the main fingerprints match the reference fingerprints; and

the method further comprises;

storing the received mark-up information with links that correlate the mark-up information to the main content elements.

23. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:

receiving a main datastream and a reference datastream,

the main datastream including main content elements intermixed with inserted content elements,

the reference datastream having a different data rate than the main datastream and including reference fingerprints of the main content elements of the main datastream;

computing main fingerprints from at least some of the main content elements included in the main datastream; and

selecting the main content elements from the main datastream based on a comparison of the main fingerprints to the reference fingerprints.

24. An apparatus comprising:

a processor configured by a comparator unit to;

receive a main datastream and a reference datastream,

the main datastream including main content elements intermixed with inserted content elements,

the reference datastream including low resolution versions of the main content elements of the main datastream;

compute main fingerprints from at least some of the main content elements; and

compute reference fingerprints from at least some of the low resolution versions of the main content elements; and

a control unit configured to select the main content elements from the main datastream based on whether the main fingerprints match the reference fingerprints computed from the low resolution versions contained in the reference datastream.

25. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein:

the main fingerprints mismatch the reference fingerprints; and

the control unit is configured to exclude the main content elements from a rendering of the main datastream in response to the main fingerprints mismatching the reference fingerprints.

26. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein:

the comparator unit configures the processor to detect duplicate main fingerprints that match one of the reference fingerprints,

one of the duplicate main fingerprints being computed from a main content element among the main content elements; and

the control unit is configured to exclude the main content element from a rendering of the main datastream in response to the detecting of the duplicate main fingerprints.

27. The apparatus of claim 24 further comprising:

a channel selection unit configured to switch a rendering of the main datastream to render a further datastream in response to a determination that the main fingerprints mismatch the reference fingerprints.

28. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein:

the reference datastream contains no low resolution versions of the inserted content elements included in the main datastream.