Audio Identification System And Method

• US 20070118375A1
• Filed: 01/19/2007
• Published: 05/24/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/21/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Laura Simkins, Stephen Kenyon
• Original Assignee: Laura Simkins, Stephen Kenyon
• Inventors: Simkins, Laura, Kenyon, Stephen
• Granted Patent: US 7,783,489 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/237
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/30 Distributed recognition, e.g. in client-server systems, for mobile phones or network applications
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/48 specially adapted for particular use
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 2207/16 Solid state audio deprecated, only for historical reasons, G06F3/16, G11B

Abstract

A method and system for direct audio capture and identification of the captured audio. A user may then be offered the opportunity to purchase recordings directly over the Internet or similar outlet. The system preferably includes one or more user-carried portable audio capture devices that employ a microphone, analog to digital converter, signal processor, and memory to store samples of ambient audio or audio features calculated from the audio. Users activate their capture devices when they hear a recording that they would like to identify or purchase. Later, the user may connect the capture device to a personal computer to transfer the audio samples or audio feature samples to an Internet site for identification. The Internet site preferably uses automatic pattern recognition techniques to identify the captured samples from a library of recordings offered for sale. The user can then verify that the sample is from the desired recording and place an order online. The pattern recognition process uses features of the audio itself and does not require the presence of artificial codes or watermarks. Audio to be identified can be from any source, including radio and television broadcasts or recordings that are played locally.

Claims

1. Apparatus for recognizing audio signals, comprising:

a hand-held device having a microphone to capture the audio signals;

a processor to transmit audio signal features corresponding to the captured audio signals to a recognition processor;

one of said hand-held device and said processor including circuitry which extracts a time series of spectrally distinct audio signal features from the captured audio signals; and

the recognition processor and a recognition memory, said recognition memory storing data corresponding to a plurality of audio templates, said recognition processor correlating the audio signal features transmitted from said processor with at least one of the audio templates stored in said recognition processor memory, said recognition processor providing a recognition signal based on the correlation.

2. A hand-held device for capturing audio signals to be transmitted from a network computer to a recognition site, the recognition site having a processor which receives extracted feature signals that correspond to the captured audio signals and compares them to a plurality of stored song information, the hand-held device comprising:

a microphone receiving analog audio signals;

an A/D converter converting the received analog audio signals to digital audio signals;

a signal processor extracting spectrally distinct feature signals from the digital audio signals;

a memory storing the extracted feature signals; and

a terminal transmitting the stored extracted feature signals to the network computer.

3. A processor for an audio signal recognition system having a hand-held device and a recognition server, the hand-held device capturing audio signals and downloading them to the processor, the recognition server (i) receiving from the local processor extracted feature signals that correspond to the captured audio signals and (ii) comparing received extracted feature signals to a plurality of stored song information, the processor comprising:

an interface for receiving the captured audio signals from the hand-held device;

structure for forming extracted feature signals corresponding to the received captured audio signals, the extracted feature signals corresponding to different frequency bands of the captured audio signals;

a memory for storing the extracted feature signals; and

an activation device which causes the stored extracted feature signals to be sent to the recognition server.

4. A recognition server for an audio signal recognition system having a hand-held device and a local processor, the hand-held device capturing audio signals and transmitting to the local processor signals which correspond to the captured audio signals, the local processor transmitting extracted feature signals to the recognition server, the recognition server comprising:

an interface receiving the extracted feature signals from the local server;

a memory storing a plurality of feature signal sets, each set corresponding to an entire audio work; and

processing circuitry which (i) receives an input audio stream and separates the received audio stream into a plurality of different frequency bands;

(ii) forms a plurality of feature time series waveforms which correspond to spectrally distinct portions of the received input audio stream;

(iii) stores in the memory the plurality of feature signal sets which correspond to the feature time series waveforms, and (iv) compares the received feature signals with the stored feature signal sets.

5. A hand-held music capture device, comprising:

a microphone which receives a random portion of an analog audio signal;

an analog-to-digital converter to convert the received portion of the audio signal into a digital signal;

a signal processor which (i) receives a less than approximately six second portion of the digital signal and (ii) signal processes same into a digital time series representing the voltage waveform of the captured audio signal;

a memory which stores the processed fixed-time portion of the digital signal that corresponds to less than a complete audio work; and

transmision structure which transmits the stored portion of the digital signal to a recognition processor.