Video detection and insertion

• US 7,694,318 B2
• Filed: 03/01/2004
• Issued: 04/06/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/07/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RPX Corporation
• Original Assignee: Technology Patents & Licensing Incorporated
• Inventors: Eldering, Charles A., Lienhart, Rainer Wolfgang, Konig, Richard, Lienhart, Christine
• Primary Examiner(s): Pendleton, Brian T
• Assistant Examiner(s): SAINT CYR, JEAN D
• Application Number:
  US10/790,468
• Publication Number:
  US 20040189873A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,227 Days
• Field of Search: 725/32, 725/33, 725/34, 725/35, 725/36, 348700-703, 348/616
• US Class Current: 725/32
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/785 using colour or luminescence
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• 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 20/48 Matching video sequences
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/635 Overlay text, e.g. embedded captions in a TV program
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2143 located in a single building, e.g. hotel, hospital or museum arrangements specially adapted for plural spots in a confined site in broadcast systems H04H20/63; adaptations for transmission by electric cable for domestic distribution in television systems H04N7/106
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23418 involving operations for analysing video streams, e.g. detecting features or characteristics television picture signal circuitry for scene change detection H04N5/147; filtering for image enhancement G06T5/00; methods or arrangements for recognising scenes G06V20/00; arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of video in broadcast systems H04H60/59
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23424 involving splicing one content stream with another content stream, e.g. for inserting or substituting an advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2547 Third Party Billing, e.g. billing of advertiser
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25891 being end-user preferences retrieval of video data in a video database based on user preferences G06F16/739; arrangements for recognizing users' preferences H04H60/46; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2668 Creating a channel for a dedicated end-user group, e.g. insertion of targeted commercials based on end-user profiles information retrieval from the Internet by querying with filtering and personalisation G06F16/9535; arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast H04H20/10; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; adaptation of message content in packet-switching networks H04L51/063
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41415 involving a public display, viewable by several users in a public space outside their home, e.g. movie theatre, information kiosk
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4331 Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• 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 21/44016 involving splicing one content stream with another content stream, e.g. for substituting a video clip
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/458 Scheduling content for creating a personalised stream, e.g. by combining a locally stored advertisement with an incoming stream; Updating operations, e.g. for OS modules ; time-related management operations arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast or during the distribution H04H20/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8352 involving content or source identification data, e.g. Unique Material Identifier [UMID]
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8405 represented by keywords
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 : by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/088 : the inserted signal being digital
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/0887 : for the transmission of programme or channel identifying signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/162 : Authorising the user terminal, e.g. by paying; Registering the use of a subscription channel, e.g. billing

Abstract

A television signal substitution system that replaces known video segments such as advertisements with selected replacement advertisements. Fingerprint data of known advertisements can be stored in a fingerprint database. When new fingerprint data is available, the fingerprint data can be automatically or manually transmitted to subscribers. Various techniques can be used to identify advertisements based on the fingerprint data.

Claims

1. A method for video detection and replacement, the method comprising:

receiving an input video signal;

creating a temporal sliding window of initial length L seconds and running the sliding window the input video signal, such that at least a portion of the input video signal is captured by the temporal sliding window;

comparing a first segment of the portion of the input video signal captured by the temporal sliding window of initial length L seconds to a portion of stored fingerprint data;

expanding the temporal sliding window to have an expanded length approximately equal to the length of the stored fingerprint data if the first segment of the portion of the input video signal matches the portion of stored fingerprint data;

comparing an expanded segment of the input video signal captured by the expanded window having the expanded length with the stored fingerprint data; and

generating an output video signal comprising the input video signal, wherein the expanded segment of the input video signal is replaced with a replacement portion if the expanded segment of the input video signal matches the fingerprint data.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising;

automatically receiving fingerprint data of segments to be identified via a computer communications network; and

storing the fingerprint data.

3. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein the fingerprint data is transmitted periodically.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the replacement portion comprises at least one advertisement.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the replacement portion is selected based at least in part on the geographic location.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the selection of a replacement portion is based at least in part on the received input video signal.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing characteristics of the fingerprint data prior to the comparison of the first segment of the portion of the input video signal to the portion of stored fingerprint data;

storing characteristics of potential replacement portions prior to the comparison of the first segment of the portion of the input video signal to the portion of stored fingerprint data; and

selecting the replacement portion based at least in part on comparing the characteristics of the stored fingerprint data and the characteristics of the potential replacement portions.

8. A method for video detection and replacement, the method comprising:

(a) receiving an input video signal;

(b) capturing a captured portion of L seconds of the received input video signal;

(c) comparing the captured portion of the input video signal to an L second long portion of stored fingerprint data, the stored fingerprint data having a total fingerprint length greater than or equal to L;

(d) if the captured portion of the input video signal matches the portion of stored fingerprint data, capturing an additional portion of the received input video signal, the additional portion being contiguous with the captured portion, such that an entire captured portion comprising the captured portion of the received input video signal plus the additional portion has an entire captured length that is approximately equal in length to the total fingerprint length of stored fingerprint data;

(e) comparing the entire captured portion of the received input video signal to the stored fingerprint data; and

(f) generating an output video signal comprising the input video signal, wherein the entire captured portion of the input video signal is replaced with a replacement portion if the entire captured portion of the input video signal substantially matches the fingerprint data.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising;

(g) automatically receiving fingerprint data of segments to be identified via a computer communications network; and

(h) storing the fingerprint data.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the fingerprint data is transmitted periodically.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the replacement portion comprises at least one advertisement.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the replacement portion is selected based at least in part on a geographic location.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein selection of a replacement portion is based at least in part on the received input video signal.

14. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

(g) storing characteristics of the fingerprint data prior to the comparison of step (c);

(h) storing characteristics of potential replacement portions prior to the comparison of step (c); and

(i) selecting the replacement portion based at least in part on comparing the characteristics of the stored fingerprint data and the characteristics of the potential replacement portions.