Method for Extracting a Fingerprint Data From Video/Audio Signals

• US 20100135521A1
• Filed: 05/22/2008
• Published: 06/03/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/22/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ZTE Corporation
• Original Assignee: Yuvad Technologies Co. Ltd
• Inventors: Zhang, Ji
• Granted Patent: US 8,548,192 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/46 Extracting features or characteristics from the video content, e.g. video fingerprints, representative shots or key frames
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/47 Detecting features for summarising video content

Abstract

A method for extracting a fingerprint data from video/audio signals, comprising the steps of sending a series of video frame images into a fingerprint extractor; extracting a fingerprint data through the fingerprint extractor; and storing the fingerprint data into a fingerprint database, characterized in that, in the fingerprint extractor, said method further comprises the sub-steps of storing the video frame images in a frame buffer which accepts a new video frame image and discards the oldest video frame image in a first in first out (FIFO) fashion; sampling the video images by a sub-sampler which operates on one video frame image at a time, so that the output of the sub-sampler contains data samples obtained from multiple video frame images while the video image content itself is discarded, and after each video frame image is sampled at the head of the frame buffer, it is discarded after the sampling; making the data samples to go through a divider which divides the data samples into groups of video frames so as to be organized as one fingerprint segment after another one; incorporating optional information by a formatter to the fingerprint segment so as to form the fingerprint data, at the output of the formatter, the video image content is discarded, only the fingerprint data and the associated optional information remain; and transferring the fingerprint data and the associated optional information by a transfer buffer to the fingerprint database. According to the present invention, the method for extracting a fingerprint data from video/audio signals facilitates the automatic identification, archiving and search of video content without the need for human visual inspections.

Claims

1. A method for extracting a fingerprint data from video/audio signals, comprising the steps of

sending a series of video frame images into a fingerprint extractor;

extracting a fingerprint data through the fingerprint extractor; and

storing the fingerprint data into a fingerprint database,

characterized in that, in the fingerprint extractor, said method further comprises the sub-steps of

storing the video frame images in a frame buffer which accepts a new video frame image and discards the oldest video frame image in a first in first out (FIFO) fashion;

sampling the video images by a sub-sampler which operates on one video frame image at a time, so that the output of the sub-sampler contains data samples obtained from multiple video frame images while the video image content itself is discarded, and after each video frame image is sampled at the head of the frame buffer, it is discarded after the sampling;

making the data samples to go through a divider which divides the data samples into groups of video frames so as to be organized as one fingerprint segment after another one;

incorporating optional information by a formatter to the fingerprint segment so as to form the fingerprint data, at the output of the formatter, the video image content is discarded, only the fingerprint data and the associated optional information remain; and

transferring the fingerprint data by a transfer buffer to the fingerprint database.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, in the fingerprint extractor, said method further comprises the sub-steps of

making video signals first go through a converter to form time-consecutive digitized video images if they are originally in analog format, and/or decompress the same if they are stored in a compressed data format.

3. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, the optional information includes a brief description of what is the content, where the content was obtained, when the content was obtained, and/or what any information may be useful in describing the content itself.

4. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, the data samples are taken as evenly distributed in the frame as possible, with the center of the frame as the center of the sub-sampling.

5. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, with the video frame height H and width W, 5 data samples are spaced at the intersections of ½

H and ½

W, ½

H and ¼

W, ½

H and ¾

W, ¼

H and ½

W, and ¾

H and ½

W.

6. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, the video frames are identically sub-sampled spatially, and the data samples for consecutive frame frames are made and organized into a two-dimensional array which is the so-called the fingerprint of the video content, and each row corresponds to a data sample set of a video frame.

7. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, sampling by the sub-sampler is done only once every other frame.

8. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, sampling by the sub-sampler is done for the first N frames.

9. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, sampling by the sub-sampler is done for N frames periodically.

10. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, sampling by the sub-sampler is done for one frame every other N frames periodically, or all of the frames continuously.