Video stream modification to defeat detection

• US 20060248569A1
• Filed: 05/02/2005
• Published: 11/02/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 05/02/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RPX Corporation
• Original Assignee: Technology Patents & Licensing Incorporated
• Inventors: Eldering, Charles A., Konig, Richard, Lienhart, Rainer W.
• Granted Patent: US 7,690,011 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/135
• 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 21/4402 involving reformatting operations of video signals for household redistribution, storage or real-time display details of conversion of video standards at pixel level H04N7/01; video transcoding H04N19/40; adapting incoming signals to the display format of the display terminal G09G5/005; media handling at the source in data packet switching networks H04L65/764
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/76 Television signal recording

Abstract

A method and system for detecting automatic ad detection is presented in which video streams are modified such that features cannot be automatically recognized or statistical parameters and fingerprints derived from the video stream cannot be matched against fingerprints of known video segments in a database.

Claims

1. A method for altering a video stream to prevent the detection of video segments comprising:

receiving a video stream;

altering at least one of the set of features and statistical parameters associated with the video stream wherein the altering reduces the ability to detect a video segment in the video stream.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the altering of the at least one of the set of features and statistical parameters associated with the video stream is accomplished by varying the presence of monochrome frames.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the altering of the at least one of the set of features and statistical parameters associated with the video stream is accomplished by varying the presence of scene breaks.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the altering of the at least one of the set of features and statistical parameters associated with the video stream is accomplished by varying the action content.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the altering of the at least one of the set of features and statistical parameters associated with the video stream is accomplished by varying a color to alter a color histogram associated with the video stream.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the altering of the at least one of the set of features and statistical parameters associated with the video stream is accomplished by modifying the video stream to alter a color coherence vector associated with the video stream.

7. A system for altering a video stream to prevent the detection of a video segment comprising:

a detection subsystem for detecting parameters associated with the video stream and indicative of the presence of the video segment;

a modification subsystem for modifying the video stream to prevent detection of the presence of the video segment.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein the modification subsystem alters the video stream to prevent detection of the presence of the video segment without significantly altering the video quality.

9. The system of claim 7 wherein the modification subsystem modifies features in the video stream.

10. The system of claim 7 wherein the modification subsystem modifies statistical parameters of the video stream resulting in modification of fingerprints derived from the video stream.

11. A method for altering a video stream to prevent the detection of video segments comprising altering the video stream to produce a modified video stream wherein the altering substantially increases the dissimilarity between a video segment fingerprint derived from the video stream and a stored fingerprint representing the video segment.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the altering does not perceivably degrade the video stream quality.

13. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

measuring the modified video stream to determine if the modified video stream has been sufficiently altered to substantially increase the dissimilarity between the video segment fingerprint derived from the video stream and the stored fingerprint representing the video segment.

14. The method of claim 11 wherein the altering of the video stream is accomplished by chromatic alteration of the video stream.

15. The method of claim 11 wherein the altering of the video stream is accomplished by spatial alteration of the video stream.

16. The method of claim 11 wherein the altering of the video stream is accomplished by temporal alteration of the video stream.

17. The method of claim 11 wherein the altering of the video stream is accomplished by varying a set of pixels to alter a color histogram associated with the video stream.

18. The method of claim 11 wherein the altering of the video stream is accomplished by varying a set of pixels to alter a color coherence vector associated with the video stream.

19. The method of claim 11 wherein the varying of the video stream is accomplished by moving a region within the video stream.

20. An apparatus for altering a video stream to prevent detection of a video segment comprising:

a receiver for receiving a video stream;

a processor for detecting at least one parameter of the video stream capable of being used for detection of the video segment and for altering the at least one parameter of the video stream to prevent detection of the video segment.

21. The apparatus of claim 20 wherein the processor further comprises a color detection and altering unit.

22. A method for preventing automated advertisement detection of at least one advertisement in a video stream comprising, altering at least one of the sets of features and statistical parameters associated with the video stream surrounding the at least one advertisement, wherein the altering causes a sufficient increase in the similarity between the video stream and the advertisement to render automated advertisement detection ineffective.

23. The method of claim 22 wherein the altering is accomplished by temporal modification of the video stream.

24. The method of claim 22 wherein the alerting is accomplished by spatial modification of the video stream.

25. The method of claim 22 wherein the altering is accomplished by chromatic modification of the video stream.