Systems and methods for searching based on information in commercials

• US 9,635,418 B2
• Filed: 09/06/2016
• Issued: 04/25/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/23/2008
• 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: White, Scott, Cansler, James, Scott, Charles V.
• Primary Examiner(s): Alata, Yassin
• Application Number:
  US15/257,090
• Publication Number:
  US 20160373815A1
• Time in Patent Office: 231 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4331 Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4334 Recording operations recording of a television signal H04N5/76; arrangements for recording or accumulating broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/27
• 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 21/442 Monitoring of processes or resources, e.g. detecting the failure of a recording device, monitoring the downstream bandwidth, the number of times a movie has been viewed, the storage space available from the internal hard disk arrangements for monitoring broadcast services or broadcast-related services H04H60/29; arrangements for identifying or recognising characteristics with a direct linkage to broadcast information H04H60/35; monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; monitoring in wireless networks H04W24/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44224 Monitoring of user activity on external systems, e.g. Internet browsing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4821 using a grid, e.g. sorted out by channel and broadcast time
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4826 using recommendation lists, e.g. of programs or channels sorted out according to their score
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4828 for searching program descriptors retrieval of video data G06F16/739
• 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

Abstract

A system that incorporates teachings of the subject disclosure may include, for example, determining that a commercial segment of media content, including a video portion and an audio portion, contains neither metadata nor close captioning information. I response to determining that the commercial segment contains neither metadata nor close captioning information, advertised program content is identified based on the video portion, the audio portion or both. Alternative media content is identified based on the advertised program content. Other embodiments are disclosed.

Claims

1. A device comprising:

a processing system including a processor; and

a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processing system, facilitate performance of operations comprising;

receiving media content from a media content server, wherein the media content comprises a commercial segment;

detecting the commercial segment within the media content;

determining that the commercial segment of the media content comprising a video portion and an audio portion contains neither metadata nor close captioning information;

analyzing one of the video portion and the audio portion to identify information including one of a title, a genre, and a list of people associated with an advertised program content resulting in identified information;

in response to determining that the commercial segment contains neither metadata nor close captioning information, identifying advertised program content based on the identified information;

searching an electronic programming guide for availability of alternative media content based on the advertised program content;

identifying the alternative media content based on the advertised program content; and

presenting a list of the alternative media content on a display device.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the identifying of the advertised program content comprises:

determining, from the video portion, the audio portion or both, a signature of the commercial segment, wherein the signature comprising a hash of digital information;

comparing the signature to a database; and

obtaining identifying information based on the comparing of the signature to the database.

3. The device of claim 1, wherein the identifying of the advertised program content comprises:

isolating speech from the audio portion of the commercial segment;

converting the speech to text information; and

analyzing the text information to identify the advertised program content.

4. The device of claim 1, wherein the identifying of the advertised program content comprises:

performing optical character recognition on the video portion of the commercial segment

extracting textual content from the video portion; and

analyzing the textual content to identify the advertised program content.

5. The device of claim 1, wherein the list of the alternative media content includes a list of viewing choices, wherein the list of viewing choices comprise one of video on demand, download for later playback, and schedule recording of future showings.

6. The device of claim 1, wherein the list of the alternative media content includes a list of published material related to the advertised program content.

7. The device of claim 1, wherein the list of the alternative media content includes a list of commercials for products related to a person associated with the advertised program content.

8. A machine-readable storage device, comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a processing system including a processor, facilitate performance of operations, comprising:

obtaining media content from a media content server, wherein the media content comprises an advertisement;

identifying the advertisement within the media content;

determining that the advertisement within a media program comprising a video portion and an audio portion contains neither metadata nor close captioning information;

analyzing one of the video portion, the audio portion or both to identify information including a title, a genre, a list of people associated with an advertised media content resulting in identified information;

in response to determining that the advertisement contains neither metadata nor close captioning information, identifying the advertised media content based on the identified information;

searching an electronic programming guide for availability of alternative media content based on the advertised media content

determining the alternative media content based on the advertised media content; and

providing a list of the alternative media content on a display device.

9. The machine-readable storage device of claim 8, wherein the identifying of the advertised media content comprises:

determining, from the video portion, the audio portion or both, a signature of the advertisement, wherein the signature comprising a hash of digital information;

comparing the signature to a database; and

obtaining identifying information based on the comparing of the signature to the database.

10. The machine-readable storage device of claim 8, wherein the identifying of the advertised media content comprises:

isolating speech from the audio portion of the advertisement;

converting the speech to text information; and

analyzing the text information to identify the advertised media content.

11. The machine-readable storage device of claim 8, wherein the identifying of the advertised media content comprises:

performing optical character recognition on the video portion of the advertisement

extracting textual content from the video portion; and

analyzing the textual content to identify the advertised media content.

12. The machine-readable storage device of claim 8, wherein the list of the alternative media content includes a list of viewing choices, wherein the list of viewing choices comprise one of video on demand, download for later playback, and schedule recording of future showings.

13. The machine-readable storage device of claim 8, wherein the list of the alternative media content includes a list of published material related to the advertised media content.

14. The machine-readable storage device of claim 8, wherein the list of the alternative media content includes a list of commercials for products related to a person associated with the advertised media content.

15. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a processing system comprising a processor, a multimedia signal from a multimedia server, wherein the multimedia signal comprises an advertisement;

detecting, by the processing system, the advertisement within the multimedia signal;

determining, by the processing system, that the advertisement within the multimedia signal comprising a video portion and an audio portion contains neither metadata nor close captioning information;

analyzing, by the processing system, one of the video portion and the audio portion to identify information including a title, a genre, a list of people associated with an advertised media content resulting in identified information.

identifying, by the processing system, advertised media content based on the identified information, in response to determining that the advertisement contains neither metadata nor close captioning information;

searching, by the processing system, an electronic programming guide for availability of alternative media content based on the advertised media content;

determining, by the processing system, the alternative media content based on the advertised media content; and

displaying, by the processing system, a list of the alternative media content on a display device.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the identifying of the advertised media content comprises:

determining, by the processing system, from the video portion, the audio portion or both, a signature of the advertisement, wherein the signature comprising a hash of digital information;

comparing, by the processing system, the signature to a database; and

obtaining, by the processing system, identifying information based on the comparing of the signature to the database.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the identifying of the advertised media content comprises:

isolating, by the processing system, speech from the audio portion of the advertisement;

converting, by the processing system, the speech to text information; and

analyzing, by the processing system, the text information to identify the advertised media content.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the identifying of the advertised media content comprises:

performing, by the processing system, optical character recognition on the video portion of the advertisement;

extracting, by the processing system, textual content from the video portion; and

analyzing, by the processing system, the textual content to identify the advertised media content.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein the list of the alternative media content includes a list of viewing choices, wherein the list of viewing choices comprise one of video on demand, download for later playback, and schedule recording of future showings.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein the list of the alternative media content includes a list of published material related to the advertised media content.