Methods, apparatus and articles of manufacture to perform audio watermark decoding

• US 9,305,560 B2
• Filed: 12/30/2013
• Issued: 04/05/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 04/26/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Original Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Inventors: Nelson, Daniel J., Srinivasan, Venugopal, Peiffer, John C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Godbold, Douglas
• Application Number:
  US14/144,279
• Publication Number:
  US 20140114669A1
• Time in Patent Office: 827 Days
• Field of Search: 704200-201, 704500-502
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/018 Audio watermarking, i.e. embedding inaudible data in the audio signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/14 for monitoring programmes
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 2201/50 characterised by the use of watermarks
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/31 Arrangements for monitoring the use made of the broadcast services
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/58 of audio determination or detection of speech characteristics in general G10L25/00; speech recognition in general G10L15/00
• 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 21/4394 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

Abstract

Example methods, apparatus and articles of manufacture to perform audio watermark decoding are disclosed. A disclosed example method includes receiving an audio signal including an audience measurement code embedded therein using a first plurality of frequency components, sampling the audio signal, transforming the sampled audio signal into a first frequency domain representation, determining whether the code is detectable in the first plurality of frequency components of the first frequency domain representation, and when the code is not detected in the first plurality of frequency components, examining a second plurality of frequency components of a second frequency domain representation to determine whether the code is detected, the second plurality of frequency components being offset from the first plurality of frequency components by a first offset, the first offset corresponding to a sampling frequency mismatch.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

sampling an audio signal including a code embedded therein;

transforming the sampled audio signal into a frequency domain representation;

examining a first plurality of frequency components of the frequency domain representation to determine whether the code is detected in the first plurality of frequency components; and

in response to determining that the code is not detected in the first plurality of frequency components, examining a second plurality of frequency components of the frequency domain representation of the sampled audio signal to determine whether the code is detected in the second plurality of frequency components, the second plurality of frequency components being offset from the first plurality of frequency components by a first offset corresponding to a sampling frequency mismatch.

2. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the first offset is selected from a list of offsets that enable detecting the code.

3. A method as defined in claim 1, further including:

in response to determining that the code is not detected in the second plurality of frequency components, computing a second offset different than the first offset, the second offset corresponding to a second sampling frequency mismatch; and

examining a third plurality of frequency components of the frequency domain representation to determine whether the code is detected in the third plurality of frequency components, the third plurality of frequency components being offset from the first plurality of frequency components by the second offset.

4. A method as defined in claim 3, further including, in response determining that the code is detected in the third plurality of frequency components, adding the second offset to a list of offsets that enable detecting the code.

5. A method as defined in claim 1, further including modifying a sampling rate of the audio signal based on the first offset.

6. A method as defined in claim 1, further including modifying a number of samples of the audio signal based on the first offset.

7. A method as defined in claim 1, further including modifying a bandwidth of the first plurality of frequency components based on the first offset.

8. An apparatus comprising:

a sampler to sample an audio signal including a code embedded therein;

a time-to-frequency domain converter to transform the sampled audio signal into a frequency domain representation; and

a frequency domain decoder to examine a first plurality of frequency components of the frequency domain representation to determine whether the code is detected in the first plurality of frequency components, and, in response to a determination that the code is not detected in the first plurality of frequency components, the frequency domain decoder to examine a second plurality of frequency components of the frequency domain representation to determine whether the code is detected in the second plurality of frequency components, the second plurality of frequency components being offset from the first plurality of frequency components by a first offset that corresponds to a sampling frequency mismatch.

9. An apparatus as defined in claim 8, further including an offset compensator to select the first offset from a list of offsets that enable detection of the code.

10. An apparatus as defined in claim 8, further including:

an offset compensator to, in response to a determination that the code is not detected in the second plurality of frequency components, compute a second offset different than the first offset, the second offset to correspond to a second sampling frequency mismatch; and

the frequency domain decoder to examine a third plurality of frequency components of the frequency domain representation to determine whether the code is detected in the third plurality of frequency components, the third plurality of frequency components being offset from the first plurality of frequency components by the second offset.

11. An apparatus as defined in claim 10, wherein the offset compensator is to add the second offset to a list of offsets that enable detecting the code based on a determination that the code is detected in the third plurality of frequency components.

12. An apparatus as defined in claim 8, further including an offset compensator to modify a sampling rate of the audio signal based on the first offset.

13. An apparatus as defined in claim 8, further including an offset compensator to modify a number of samples of the audio signal based on the first offset.

14. An apparatus as defined in claim 8, further including an offset compensator to modify a bandwidth of the first plurality of frequency components based on the first offset.

15. A storage device or storage disc storing machine-readable instructions that, when executed, cause a processor to at least:

sample an audio signal that includes a code embedded therein;

transform the sampled audio signal into a frequency domain representation;

examine a first plurality of frequency components of the frequency domain representation to determine whether the code is detected in the first plurality of frequency components; and

examine a second plurality of frequency components of the frequency domain representation of the sampled audio signal to determine whether the code is detected in the second plurality of frequency components based on a determination that the code is not detected in the first plurality of frequency components, the second plurality of frequency components to be offset from the first plurality of frequency components by a first offset that corresponds to a sampling frequency mismatch.

16. A storage device or storage disc as defined in claim 15, wherein the machine-readable instructions, when executed, cause the processor to select the first offset from a list of offsets that enable detecting the code.

17. A storage device or storage disc as defined in claim 15, wherein the machine-readable instructions, when executed, cause the processor to:

compute a second offset different than the first offset, the second offset to correspond to a second sampling frequency mismatch based on a determination that the code is not detected in the second plurality of frequency components; and

examine a third plurality of frequency components of the frequency domain representation to determine whether the code is detected in the third plurality of frequency components, the third plurality of frequency components to be offset from the first plurality of frequency components by the second offset.

18. A storage device or storage disc as defined in claim 17, wherein the machine-readable instructions, when executed, cause the processor to add the second offset to a list of offsets that enable detecting the code based on a determination that the code is detected in the third plurality of frequency components.

19. A storage device or storage disc as defined in claim 15, wherein the machine-readable instructions, when executed, cause the processor to modify a sampling rate of the audio signal based on the first offset.

20. A storage device or storage disc as defined in claim 15, wherein the machine-readable instructions, when executed, cause the processor to modify a number of samples of the audio signal based on the first offset.