METHODS AND APPARATUS TO GENERATE A TAG FOR MEDIA CONTENT

• US 20120265735A1
• Filed: 07/12/2011
• Published: 10/18/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/12/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nielsen Company (US) LLC (RR Donnelley & Sons Company)
• Original Assignee: Nielsen Company (US) LLC (RR Donnelley & Sons Company)
• Inventors: Deliyannis, Alexandros, McMillan, Francis Gavin
• Granted Patent: US 9,380,356 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/687
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/31 using in-band signals, e.g. subsonic or cue signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 2201/50 characterised by the use of watermarks
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 2201/90 characterised by the use of signatures
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/31 Arrangements for monitoring the use made of the broadcast services
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/37 for identifying segments of broadcast information, e.g. scenes or extracting programme ID
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/40 for identifying broadcast time
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/73 using meta-information
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2407 Monitoring of transmitted content, e.g. distribution time, number of downloads arrangements for monitoring programmes for broadcast or for distribution combined with broadcast H04H20/14
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44204 Monitoring of content usage, e.g. the number of times a movie has been viewed, copied or the amount which has been watched monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; protecting generic digital content where the protection is independent of the precise nature of the content G06F21/10; arrangements for monitoring the use made of the broadcast services in broadcast systems H04H60/31
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44224 Monitoring of user activity on external systems, e.g. Internet browsing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6125 involving transmission via Internet transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6543 for forcing some client operations, e.g. recording remote booting in general G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6582 Data stored in the client, e.g. viewing habits, hardware capabilities, credit card number arrangements where receivers interact with the broadcast H04H20/38
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8352 involving content or source identification data, e.g. Unique Material Identifier [UMID]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8358 involving watermark protecting executable software by watermarking G06F21/16; image watermarking in general G06T1/0021; watermarks inserted in still images for transmission purposes H04N1/32144; inserting watermarks during video coding H04N19/467
• 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

Example methods and apparatus to generate identifying tags for media content as described herein. An example method includes obtaining an identifier value associated with at least one of audio or video of received media content by at least one of: extracting the identifier value from at least one of the audio or the video or determining the identifier value based on inherent information of at least one of the audio or the video, generating a tag including the identifier value, and storing the tag with the media content to cause the tag to be distributed to a presentation location along with the media content.

Claims

1. A method to identify media content comprising:

obtaining an identifier value associated with at least one of audio or video of received media content by at least one of;

extracting the identifier value from at least one of the audio or the video or determining the identifier value based on inherent information of at least one of the audio or the video;

generating a tag including the identifier value; and

storing the tag with the media content to cause the tag to be distributed to a presentation location along with the media content.

2. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the identifier value is at least one of a source identifier or a media asset identifier.

3. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein extracting the identifier includes extracting a watermark embedded in the at least one of the audio or the video of the received media content.

4. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the identifier value is a string of numbers.

5. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the identifier value includes a plurality of attribute data for the at least one of the audio or the video.

6. A method as defined in claim 5, wherein the identifier value includes a source identifier and a timestamp.

7. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the tag includes an attribute type identifier associated with the identifier value.

8. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the inherent information is a signature.

9. A method as defined in claim 8, wherein determining the identifier value includes querying a database with the inherent information to retrieve the identifier value from the database.

10. A method as defined in claim 8, wherein the identifier value includes a media asset identifier, a start timestamp, and an end timestamp.

11. A method to validate a tag, the method comprising:

receiving a tag and identification information obtained from media content presented at a presentation location;

comparing at least a portion of the tag to the identification information; and

when at least the portion of the tag does not substantially match the identification information, preventing the tag from being used to report exposure of the media content.

12. A method as defined in claim 11, further comprising, when at least the portion of the tag substantially matches the identification information, crediting the media content as having been presented.

13. A method as defined in claim 12, further comprising generating a report of usage based on the crediting.

14. A method as defined in claim 11, wherein the tag is a first tag and the presentation location is a first presentation location, the method further comprising:

receiving a second tag from a second presentation location; and

in response to determining that the second tag substantially matches the first tag, preventing the crediting of the media content as having been presented.

15. A method as defined in claim 11, wherein the media content is first media content, the method further comprising:

receiving a third tag from a third presentation location;

in response to determining that the third tag does not substantially match the first tag, crediting second media content as having been presented.

16. A method as defined in claim 15, wherein the second media content is the first media content.

17. A method as defined in claim 15, wherein the third presentation location is the same as the first presentation location.

18. A method as defined in claim 15, wherein the second presentation location is the same as the first presentation location.

19. A computer readable medium storing instructions that, when executed cause a machine to at least:

obtain an identifier value associated with at least one of audio or video of received media content by at least one of;

extracting the identifier value from at least one of the audio or the video or determining the identifier value based on inherent information of at least one of the audio or the video;

generate a tag including the identifier value; and

store the tag with the media content to cause the tag to be distributed to a presentation location along with the media content.

20. A computer readable medium as defined in claim 19, wherein the identifier value is at least one of a source identifier or a media asset identifier.

21-28. -28. (canceled)

29. An apparatus to identify media content comprising:

an identity analyzer to obtain an identifier value associated with at least one of audio or video of received media content by at least one of;

extracting the identifier value from at least one of the audio or the video or determining the identifier value based on inherent information of at least one of the audio or the video;

a tag generator to generate a tag including the identifier value and to store the tag with the media content to cause the tag to be distributed to a presentation location along with the media content.

31. An apparatus as defined in claim 29, wherein extracting the identifier includes extracting a watermark embedded in the at least one of the audio or the video of the received media content.

30. (canceled)

32-38. -38. (canceled)