Fingerprinting media entities employing fingerprint algorithms and bit-to-bit comparisons

• US 7,240,207 B2
• Filed: 07/08/2005
• Issued: 07/03/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/11/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Weare, Christopher Bruce
• Primary Examiner(s): Moise; Emmanuel L.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Teslovich; Tamara
• Application Number:
  US11/177,089
• Publication Number:
  US 20050289066A1
• Time in Patent Office: 725 Days
• Field of Search: 708/200, 708/212, 708/404, 708/405, 704/200, 380/37, 713/176, 705/51, 705/75
• US Class Current: 713/176
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/018 Audio watermarking, i.e. embedding inaudible data in the audio signal

Abstract

A system and methods for the creation, management, and distribution of media entity fingerprinting are provided. In connection with a system that convergently merges perceptual and digital signal processing analysis of media entities for purposes of classifying the media entities, various means are provided to a user for automatically processing fingerprints for media entities for distribution to participating users. Techniques for providing efficient calculation and distribution of fingerprints for use in satisfying copyright regulations and in facilitating the association of meta data to media entities are included. In an illustrative implementation, the fingerprints may be generated and stored allowing for persistence of media from experience to experience.

Claims

1. A method for authenticating a media entity, comprising:

reading data representative of the media entity for which a fingerprint is desired, said media entity data containing a sequence of bits having a length N;

processing said media entity data in accordance with at least one fingerprinting algorithm, said fingerprinting algorithm calculating a fingerprint for said media entity data by calculating the average critical band energy of said media entity data, and employing bit-to-bit comparisons of said fingerprint to at least one other fingerprint stored on a computer readable medium, said at least one other fingerprint previously calculated for each of a set of media entities, and

based on said processing, authenticating whether said media entity data is one of said set of media entities.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein said processing step further comprises:

calculating the average information density of said media entity data.

3. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein said processing step further comprises:

determining the standard deviation of the average information density of said media entity data.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein said processing step further comprises:

calculating the standard deviation of the average critical band energy of said media entity data.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein said processing step further comprises:

determining the play-time of said media entity data.

6. The method as recited in claim 3, wherein said processing step further comprises:

processing said information density and said standard deviation of said information density to produce a bit-sequence representative of said fingerprint.

7. The method as recited in claim 4, wherein said processing step further comprises:

processing said critical band energy and said standard deviation of said critical band energy to produce a bit-sequence representative of said fingerprint.

8. The method as recited in claim 5, wherein said processing step further comprises:

processing said play time to produce a bit-sequence representative of said fingerprint.

9. A computer readable medium bearing computer executable instructions for carrying out the method of claim 1.

13. The system as recited in claim 9, wherein said means for processing further includes:

means for calculating the standard deviation of the average critical band energy of said media entity data.

16. The system as recited in claim 13, wherein said means for processing further includes:

means for processing said critical band energy and said standard deviation of said critical band energy to produce a bit-sequence representative of said fingerprint.

19. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein said authenticating step comprises:

authenticating whether said media entity data is one of said set of media entities for which it is legal to distribute copies.

10. A system for authenticating media entities, comprising:

means for reading data representative of a media entity for which a fingerprint is desired, said media entity data containing a sequence of random bits having a length N; and

means for processing said media entity data in accordance with at least one fingerprinting algorithm, said fingerprinting algorithm calculating a fingerprint for said media entity data by calculating the average critical band energy of said media entity data, and employing bit-to-bit comparisons of said fingerprint to at least one other fingerprint stored on a computer readable medium, said at least one other fingerprint previously calculated for each of a set of media entities, and

means for authenticating whether said media entity data is one of said set of media entities based on said processing.

11. The system as recited in claim 10, wherein said means for processing further includes:

means for calculating the average information density of said media entity data.

12. The system as recited in claim 11, wherein said means for processing further includes:

means for determining the standard deviation of the average information density of said media entity data.

14. The system as recited in claim 10, wherein said means for processing further includes:

means for determining the play-time of said media entity data.

15. The system as recited in claim 12, wherein said means for processing further includes:

means for processing said information density and said standard deviation of said information density to produce a bit-sequence representative of said fingerprint.

17. The system as recited in claim 14, wherein said means for processing further includes:

means for processing said play time to produce a bit-sequence representative of said fingerprint.

20. The system as recited in claim 12, wherein said set of media entities are a set of media entities for which it is legal to distribute copies.

18. A system for creating fingerprints for media entities, comprising:

an input component for receiving data representative of a media entity for which a fingerprint is desired, said media entity data containing a sequence of random bits having a length N; and

a processor for processing said media entity data in accordance with at least one fingerprinting algorithm, said fingerprinting algorithm calculating a fingerprint for said media entity data by calculating the average critical band energy of said media entity data, and employing bit-to-bit comparisons of said fingerprint to at least one other fingerprint stored on a computer readable medium, said at least one other fingerprint previously calculated for each of a set of media entities, and wherein said means for processing further includes means for authenticating whether said media entity data is one of said set of media entities based on said processing.