Content interruption point identification accuracy and efficiency

• US 9,633,262 B2
• Filed: 11/21/2014
• Issued: 04/25/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/21/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Zilberstein, Karin, Finster, Diana, de la Garza, Enrique, Pineda, Alexei
• Primary Examiner(s): Kumar, Pankaj
• Assistant Examiner(s): BAIG, SAHAR A
• Application Number:
  US14/550,905
• Publication Number:
  US 20160148055A1
• Time in Patent Office: 886 Days
• Field of Search: 725 12, 725 36, 725 34
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/40 in video content extracting overlay text G06V20/62; video retrieval G06F16/70; processing of video elementary streams in video servers H04N21/234; processing of video elementary streams in video clients H04N21/44
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/44 Event detection
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/49 Segmenting video sequences, i.e. computational techniques such as parsing or cutting the sequence, low-level clustering or determining units such as shots or scenes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/233 Processing of audio elementary streams monitoring, identification or recognition of audio in broadcast systems H04H60/58
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23418 involving operations for analysing video streams, e.g. detecting features or characteristics television picture signal circuitry for scene change detection H04N5/147; filtering for image enhancement G06T5/00; methods or arrangements for recognising scenes G06V20/00; arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of video in broadcast systems H04H60/59
• 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 21/44008 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 21/44218 Detecting physical presence or behaviour of the user, e.g. using sensors to detect if the user is leaving the room or changes his face expression during a TV program methods or arrangements for recognising human body or animal bodies or body parts G06V40/10; methods or arrangements for acquiring or recognising human faces, facial parts, facial sketches, facial expressions G06V40/16; methods or arrangements for recognising movements or behaviour G06V40/20; arrangements for identifying users in broadcast systems H04H60/45
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/458 Scheduling content for creating a personalised stream, e.g. by combining a locally stored advertisement with an incoming stream; Updating operations, e.g. for OS modules ; time-related management operations arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast or during the distribution H04H20/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• 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 21/8455 involving pointers to the content, e.g. pointers to the I-frames of the video stream

Abstract

Automated content interruption point identification improves the accuracy with which potential content interruption points are identified, and increases the efficiency of content interruption point identification and content distribution. Potential interruption points are automatically identified based on transitions occurring within the content, including changes in the sound level, changes in the light, or brightness, level, changes in people visible in a scene of the content, transitions that are identified by content metadata, and other types of transitions. In providing content to a content consumer, a determination is made whether to interrupt the provision of the content, at one or more of the identified potential content interruption points, based on factors including interruption point metadata, metadata associated with auxiliary content that would be inserted, and user information, which includes explicitly specified user settings, as well as detected user information.

Claims

1. A computing device providing improved accuracy and efficiency in identifying interruption points in content, the computing device comprising:

one or more processing units that execute computer-executable instructions; and

one or more computer-readable media comprising computer-executable instructions which, when executed by at least some of the one or more processing units, cause the computing device to perform steps comprising;

identifying scene changes in the content based on at least one of;

a detected change in brightness of the content, a detected change in audio volume of the content, or a detected change in a quantity of people visible in the content;

selecting at least some of the identified scene changes to be identified as potential content interruption points at which presentation of the content to a user is temporarily interruptible to accommodate presentation of auxiliary content to the user;

annotating the content to comprise the selected ones of the identified potential content interruption points;

presenting the content to the user on a physical display device communicationally coupled to the content interruption point identification device;

reaching, as part of the presenting the content, a one of the identified potential content interruption points;

determining whether to interrupt the presenting the content at the reached identified potential content interruption point, the determining being based at least in part on an elapsed time since the presenting the content was temporarily interrupted; and

temporarily interrupting the presenting the content at the reached identified potential content interruption point and, instead, temporarily presenting auxiliary content, if the determining determines to interrupt the presenting the content.

2. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the computer-readable media comprises further computer-executable instructions which, when executed by at least some of the one or more processing units, cause the computing device to perform steps comprising:

generating content interruption point metadata for the selected ones of the identified potential content interruption points, each of the generated content interruption point metadata indicating why a corresponding one of the identified potential content interruption points was identified.

3. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the computer-readable media comprises further computer-executable instructions which, when executed by at least some of the one or more processing units, cause the computing device to perform steps comprising:

identifying further potential content interruption points from portions of the content identified by content metadata associated with the content.

4. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the computer-executable instructions that cause the computing device to identify scene changes in the content based on the detected change in the brightness of the content, the computer-executable instructions that cause the computing device to identify scene changes in the content based on the detected change in audio volume of the content, and the computer-executable instructions that cause the computing device to identify scene changes in the content based on the detected change in a quantity of people visible in the content are each executed independently of one another;

and wherein further the computer-readable media comprises further computer-executable instructions which, when executed by at least some of the one or more processing units, cause the computing device to perform steps comprising;

aggregating together the identified potential content interruption points selected from scene changes identified based on the detected change in the brightness of the content, the identified potential content interruption points selected from scene changes in the content based on the detected change in audio volume of the content and the identified potential content interruption points selected from scene changes in the content based on the detected change in a quantity of people visible in the content.

5. The computing device of claim 4, wherein the computer-executable instructions causing the computing device to perform the aggregation comprise computer-executable instructions which, when executed by at least some of the one or more processing units, cause the computing device to perform steps comprising:

identifying at least two separately identified content interruption points from a same scene change;

combining the identified at least two separately identified content interruption points into a single content interruption point; and

combining content interruption point metadata associated with each of the identified at least two separately identified content interruption points into a single content interruption point metadata associated with the single content interruption point.

6. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the determining is further based on the comparison of a content interruption point metadata associated with the reached identified potential content interruption point with auxiliary content metadata associated with the temporarily presented auxiliary content.

7. A method for improving accuracy and efficiency in identifying interruption points in content, the method comprising the steps of:

identifying scene changes in the content based on at least one of;

a detected change in brightness of the content, a detected change in audio volume of the content, or a detected change in a quantity of people visible in the content;

selecting at least some of the identified scene changes to be identified as potential content interruption points at which presentation of the content to a user is temporarily interruptible to accommodate presentation of auxiliary content to the user;

annotating the content to comprise the selected ones of the identified potential content interruption points;

presenting the content to the user on a physical display device;

reaching, as part of the presenting the content, a one of the identified potential content interruption points;

determining whether to interrupt the presenting the content at the reached identified potential content interruption point, the determining being based at least in part on an elapsed time since the presenting the content was temporarily interrupted; and

temporarily interrupting the presenting the content at the reached identified potential content interruption point and, instead, temporarily presenting auxiliary content, if the determining determines to interrupt the presenting the content.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising the steps of:

generating content interruption point metadata for the selected ones of the identified potential content interruption points, each of the generated content interruption point metadata indicating why a corresponding one of the identified potential content interruption points was identified.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the identifying the scene changes based on the detected change in the brightness of the content, the identifying the scene changes based on the detected change in the audio volume of the content, and the identifying the scene changes based on the detected change in a quantity of people visible in the content are performed independently of one another;

the method further comprising the steps of;

aggregating together the identified potential content interruption points selected from scene changes identified based on the detected change in the brightness of the content, the identified potential content interruption points selected from scene changes in the content based on the detected change in audio volume of the content and the identified potential content interruption points selected from scene changes in the content based on the detected change in a quantity of people visible in the content.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising the steps of:

identifying at least two separately identified content interruption points from a same scene change;

combining the identified at least two separately identified content interruption points into a single content interruption point; and

combining content interruption point metadata associated with each of the identified at least two separately identified content interruption points into a single content interruption point metadata associated with the single content interruption point.

11. The method of claim 7, further comprising the steps of:

transmitting the annotated content to a content presentation device that is communicationally coupled to the physical display device on which the content will be presented to the user, wherein the identifying, the selecting and the annotating are performed by a content service computing device that is separate from, and independent of, the content presentation device.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein the determining is further based on the comparison of a content interruption point metadata associated with the reached identified potential content interruption point with auxiliary content metadata associated with the temporarily presented auxiliary content.

17. The method of claim 7, further comprising the steps of:

identifying further potential content interruption points from portions of the content identified by content metadata associated with the content.

13. A system comprising:

a content presentation device configured to perform steps comprising;

presenting content to a user on a physical display device communicationally coupled to the content presentation device;

reaching, as part of the presenting the content, an identified potential content interruption point;

determining whether to interrupt the presenting the content at the reached identified potential content interruption point, the determining being based at least in part on an elapsed time since the presenting the content was temporarily interrupted; and

temporarily interrupting the presenting the content at the reached identified potential content interruption point and, instead, temporarily presenting auxiliary content, if the determining determines to interrupt the presenting the content; and

one or more computer-readable storage media comprising computer-executable instructions directed to steps comprising;

identifying scene changes in the content based on at least one of;

a detected change in brightness of the content, a detected change in audio volume of the content, or a detected change in a quantity of people visible in the content;

selecting at least some of the identified scene changes to be identified as potential content interruption points; and

annotating the content to comprise the selected ones of the identified potential content interruption points.

14. The system of claim 13, further comprising a content service computing device, separate and apart from the content presentation device, the content service computing device comprising the one or more computer-readable storage media.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the content presentation device comprises the one or more computer-readable storage media;

and wherein further the computer-executable instructions directed to identifying scene changes in the content based on the detected change in the brightness of the content, the computer-executable instructions directed to identifying scene changes in the content based on the detected change in audio volume of the content, and the computer-executable instructions directed to identifying scene changes in the content based on the detected change in a quantity of people visible in the content are each executed independently of one another; and

wherein still further the one or more computer-readable storage media comprise further computer-executable instructions directed to;

aggregating together the identified potential content interruption points selected from scene changes identified based on the detected change in the brightness of the content, the identified potential content interruption points selected from scene changes in the content based on the detected change in audio volume of the content and the identified potential content interruption points selected from scene changes in the content based on the detected change in a quantity of people visible in the content.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the determining is further based on the comparison of a content interruption point metadata associated with the reached identified potential content interruption point with auxiliary content metadata associated with the temporarily presented auxiliary content.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the computer-executable instructions directed to the aggregating comprise computer-executable instructions directed to:

identifying at least two separately identified content interruption points from a same scene change;

combining the identified at least two separately identified content interruption points into a single content interruption point; and

combining content interruption point metadata associated with each of the identified at least two separately identified content interruption points into a single content interruption point metadata associated with the single content interruption point.

19. The system of claim 13, wherein the computer-readable storage media comprise further computer-executable instructions directed to:

generating content interruption point metadata for the selected ones of the identified potential content interruption points, each of the generated content interruption point metadata indicating why a corresponding one of the identified potential content interruption points was identified.

20. The system of claim 13, wherein the computer-readable storage media comprise further computer-executable instructions directed to:

identifying further potential content interruption points from portions of the content identified by content metadata associated with the content.