Apparatus and method for media detection and replacement

• US 9,241,185 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2009
• Issued: 01/19/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2009
• 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: Howcroft, Jerald R., Raftelis, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Featherstone, Mark D
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bantamoi, Anthony
• Application Number:
  US12/570,601
• Publication Number:
  US 20110078754A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,302 Days
• Field of Search: 725/28, 725/32, 725/36, 709/231
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 21/2358 for generating different versions, e.g. for different recipient devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2665 Gathering content from different sources, e.g. Internet and satellite
• 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 21/4394 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 21/4396 by muting the audio signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/440236 by media transcoding, e.g. video is transformed into a slideshow of still pictures, audio is converted into text
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4542 Blocking scenes or portions of the received content, e.g. censoring scenes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8106 involving special audio data, e.g. different tracks for different languages
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8455 involving pointers to the content, e.g. pointers to the I-frames of the video stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a server having a controller configured to receive a selection from a computing device during presentation of a media program comprising at least one of audio content and textual content associated with the audio content, wherein the selection identifies media content of interest, receive a selection from the computing device identifying replacement content for the media program, detect whether the media program contains the identified media content of interest, and replace the identified media content of interest with the replacement content if the identified media content of interest is detected in the media program. Other embodiments are disclosed.

Claims

1. A server, comprising:

a memory to store executable instructions; and

a controller coupled to the memory, wherein the controller, responsive to executing the instructions, facilitates performance of operations comprising;

receiving a first selection from a computing device during presentation of a media program comprising audio-related content corresponding to an audio portion of the media program, wherein the first selection identifies media content of interest;

receiving a second selection from the computing device identifying replacement content for the media program, wherein the replacement content is stored separately from the media program, and wherein the second selection identifies replacement alternate audio-related content;

de-packetizing the media program to obtain a de-packetized media program;

separating the audio portion from the de-packetized media program to obtain a separated audio portion;

determining, from the separated audio portion, that the media program contains the media content of interest; and

inserting an indicator in the de-packetized media program comprising a pointer to the replacement content,

wherein the indicator is inserted in the audio-related content in response to the determining that the media program contains the media content of interest and points to the replacement content stored separately from the media program,

wherein the inserting of the pointer comprises placing the pointer at a start point of the media content of interest within the de-packetized media program to cause a media device to retrieve the replacement content stored separately from the media program based on the pointer and to replace the media content of interest of the de-packetized media program with the replacement alternate audio-related content,

wherein the replacement occurs responsive to the determining that the media content of interest within the de-packetized media program,

wherein the operations further comprise applying voice recognition to the separated audio portion to obtain a textual representation of the audio portion,

wherein the determining that the media program contains the media content of interest is based on the textual representation of the audio portion and

wherein the replacement of the media content of interest with the replacement content begins at the start point.

2. The server of claim 1, wherein the server operates in an interactive television network, wherein the interactive television network is selected from a group consisting of internet protocol television, interactive cable television and interactive satellite television, and wherein the replacement content is read from a database based on the pointer.

3. The server of claim 1, wherein the separated audio portion comprises one of an audio stream, a text stream or both, and wherein the media content of interest is selected from a group consisting of audio content, textual content associated with the audio content, still image content, video content and combinations thereof.

4. The server of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

re-packetizing the de-packetized media program comprising the replacement alternate audio-related content; and

storing information associated with the media content of interest.

5. The server of claim 4, wherein the information associated with the media content of interest comprises a first identifier associated with the media program, a first time associated with detection of the media content of interest, a second time associated with replacement of the media content of interest, and a second identifier indicating successful replacement of the media content interest.

6. The server of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise receiving the first and second selections via a batch file feed.

18. The server of claim 1, wherein the indicator comprising the pointer is inserted into an audio stream of the media program.

7. A method, comprising:

identifying, by a client device comprising a processor, media content of interest and replacement alternate audio-related content for replacing the media content of interest, to obtain identifications, in a de-packetized rendition of a media program using a batch file feed, wherein the media content of interest is associated with the media program comprising audio-related content corresponding to an audio portion of the media program, wherein the replacement content is stored separately from the media program;

transmitting, by the client device, the identifications to a server operating in an interactive television network, wherein the server separates an audio portion from the de-packetized rendition of the media program to obtain a separated audio portion, wherein the media content of interest is determined by the server to be in the separated audio portion of the media program, wherein the replacement alternate audio-related content is retrieved by the server, and wherein the audio portion of the media content of interest within the de-packetized rendition of the media program is replaced with the replacement alternate audio-related content by the server during the media program;

inserting an indicator comprising a pointer to the replacement alternate audio-related content to be substituted for the audio-related content upon detection of the media content of interest, wherein the inserting of the pointer comprises placing the pointer at a start point of the media content of interest;

retrieving the replacement alternate audio-related content based on the pointer; and

substituting, by the client device, the media content of interest with replacement alternate audio-related content beginning at the start point, wherein the substituting occurs responsive to the indicator comprising the pointer being detected in the media program,

wherein voice recognition is applied to the separated audio portion to obtain a textual representation of the audio portion,

wherein the media content of interest is determined by the server based on the textual representation of the audio portion, and

wherein the substituting of the media content of interest with the replacement alternate audio-related content begins at the start point.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the interactive television network is selected from a group consisting of internet protocol television, interactive cable television and interactive satellite television, the operations further comprising monitoring a plurality of media programs comprising the media program based on a schedule.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the separated audio portion comprises one of an audio stream, a text stream or both, and wherein the media content of interest and the replacement alternate audio-related content is selected from a group consisting of audio content, video content, still image content, text content, text content associated with the audio content and combinations thereof.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the server re-packetizes the de-packetized rendition of the media program comprising the replacement alternate audio-related content, and wherein the replacement alternate audio-related content is stored by the server.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein the audio-related content correlates to the media content of interest.

12. The method of claim 7, comprising identifying, by the client device, the replacement alternate audio-related content by utilizing a device selected from a group consisting of personal computer, a mobile device and a set-top-box.

13. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium, comprising executable instructions, which when executed by a processor, facilitate performance of operations comprising:

receiving a first selection from a computing device operating in an interactive television network, wherein the first selection identifies media content of interest associated with a media program comprising audio-related content corresponding to an audio portion of the media program;

receiving a second selection from the computing device identifying replacement content to replace the media content of interest, wherein the second selection identifies replacement alternate audio-related content;

de-packetizing the media program to obtain a de-packetized media program;

separating the audio portion from the de-packetized media program to obtain a separated audio portion;

determining, from the separated audio portion, that the media program contains the media content of interest;

inserting an indicator with a pointer to the replacement alternate audio-related content stored separately from the media program responsive to the determining that the media program contains the media content of interest, wherein the pointer is placed within the de-packetized media program at a start point of the media content of interest;

retrieving the replacement alternate audio-related content based on the pointer responsive to the determining that the media program contains the media content of interest; and

substituting, during presentation of the media program, the media content of interest with the replacement alternate audio-related content beginning at the start point,

wherein the operations further comprise applying voice recognition to the separated audio portion to obtain a textual representation of the audio portion, and

wherein the determining that the media program contains the media content of interest is based on the textual representation of the audio portion.

14. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the separated audio portion comprises one of an audio stream, a text stream or both, and wherein the operations further comprise retrieving the replacement alternate audio-related content based on the pointer, and wherein the substituting of the media content of interest with the replacement alternate audio-related content begins at the start point.

15. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise:

re-packetizing the de-packetized media program comprising the replacement alternate audio-related content; and

storing information associated with the media content of interest.

16. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise replacing the audio-related content of the media program, wherein the audio-related content correlates to the media content of interest.

17. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise storing an identifier indicating that the substituting of the media content of interest with the replacement alternate audio-related content was successful.

19. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the indicator comprising the pointer is inserted into an audio stream of the media program.