Methods and apparatus to monitor audio/visual content from various sources

• US 7,712,114 B2
• Filed: 02/08/2007
• Issued: 05/04/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/09/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Nielson Company (US), LLC
• Original Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Inventors: Ramaswamy, Arun
• Primary Examiner(s): Lonsberry; Hunter B.
• Application Number:
  US11/672,706
• Publication Number:
  US 20070192782A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,181 Days
• Field of Search: 725 9- 21
• US Class Current: 725/14
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/37 for identifying segments of broadcast information, e.g. scenes or extracting programme ID
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/58 of audio determination or detection of speech characteristics in general G10L25/00; speech recognition in general G10L15/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/59 of video recognising characters or patterns in general G06F18/00, G06V20/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42204 User interfaces specially adapted for controlling a client device through a remote control device; Remote control devices therefor constructive details of casings for the remote control device H01H9/0235; user interfaces for controlling a tuning device of a television receiver through a remote control H03J9/00; remote control of peripheral devices connected to a television receiver through the remote control device of the television receiver H04B1/205
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/426 Internal components of the client ; Characteristics thereof H04N5/44 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42646 for reading from or writing on a non-volatile solid state storage medium, e.g. DVD, CD-ROM
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/436 Interfacing a local distribution network, e.g. communicating with another STB or one or more peripheral devices inside the home
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4394 involving operations for analysing the audio stream, e.g. detecting features or characteristics in audio streams arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of audio in broadcast systems H04H60/58
• 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 21/44204 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 21/44213 Monitoring of end-user related data arrangements for monitoring the users' behaviour or opinions in broadcast systems H04H60/33
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44222 Analytics of user selections, e.g. selection of programs or purchase activity monitoring of user selections in data processing systems G06F11/34; arrangements for monitoring the user's behaviour or opinions in broadcast systems H04H60/33
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4781 Games
• 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 5/775 between a recording apparatus and a television receiver
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/783 Adaptations for reproducing at a rate different from the recording rate
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/85 on discs or drums
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17327 with deferred transmission or handling of upstream communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8042 involving data reduction
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8205 involving the multiplexing of an additional signal and the colour video signal

Abstract

Methods and apparatus to monitor audio/visual content from various sources are disclosed. An example method to monitor media content provided by a selected one of a plurality of media content sources for presentation by an information presenting device disclosed herein comprises determining first information based on a video signal corresponding to the monitored media content, determining second information based on an audio signal corresponding to the monitored media content, identifying the selected one of the plurality of media content sources based on a first classification decision resulting from one of the first information and the second information and a second classification decision resulting from the other of the first information and the second information, and identifying the monitored media content based on identification information associated with at least one of the video signal or the audio signal.

Claims

1. A method to monitor media content provided by a selected one of a plurality of media content sources for presentation by an information presenting device, the method comprising:

determining first information based on a video signal corresponding to the monitored media content;

determining second information based on an audio signal corresponding to the monitored media content;

determining third information based on a remote control signal;

identifying the selected one of the plurality of media content sources based on a first classification decision resulting from the first information and the second information, a second classification decision resulting from the second information, and evaluation of the third information; and

identifying the monitored media content based on identification information associated with at least one of the video signal or the audio signal.

2. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein the first information comprises at least one of detected metadata, detected text, a blurriness measurement, a detected blank frame, a macroblock measurement or a detected template.

3. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein the second information comprises at least one of a detected audio code, a detected audio signature, a volume measurement, an audio compression measurement, a jingle measurement or an audio spectral shape measurement.

4. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein identifying the selected one of the plurality of media content sources comprises deciding whether the selected one of the plurality of media content sources is at least one of an analog television broadcast, an analog VOD presentation or a VCR playback based on whether the first information comprises detected AMOL data and whether the second information comprises an audio spectral shape measurement.

5. A method as defined in claim 4 wherein deciding whether the selected one of the plurality of media content sources is the at least one of the analog television broadcast, the analog VOD presentation or the VCR playback is based on detecting a timeshift associated with the monitored media content.

6. A method as defined in claim 4 wherein deciding whether the selected one of the plurality of media content sources is the at least one of the analog television broadcast, the analog VOD presentation or the VCR playback is based on detecting whether the audio spectral shape measurement is representative of a cable television transmission system.

7. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein identifying the selected one of the plurality of media content sources comprises deciding whether the selected one of the plurality of media content sources is at least one of a live digital television broadcast, a time-shifted digital television presentation or a DVD presentation based on whether the first information comprises a macroblock measurement and whether the second information comprises an audio compression measurement.

8. A method as defined in claim 7 wherein deciding whether the selected one of the plurality of media content sources is the at least one of the live digital television broadcast, the time-shifted digital television presentation or the DVD presentation comprises deciding that the selected one of the plurality of media content sources is the DVD presentation if the first information comprises the macroblock measurement and the second information comprises the audio compression measurement, wherein the macroblock measurement is representative of a media content presentation exhibiting macroblocking and the audio compression measurement is representative of AC3 compression.

11. A method as defined in claim 1 further comprising determining whether the selected one of the plurality of media content sources is in at least one special operating mode.

9. A method to monitor media content provided by a selected one of a plurality of media content sources for presentation by an information presenting device, the method comprising:

determining first information based on a video signal corresponding to the monitored media content;

determining second information based on an audio signal corresponding to the monitored media content;

identifying the selected one of the plurality of media content sources based on a first classification decision resulting from one of the first information and the second information and a second classification decision resulting from the other of the first information and the second information, wherein identifying the selected one of the plurality of media content sources comprises deciding whether the selected one of the plurality of media content sources is at least one of a live digital television broadcast, a time-shifted digital television presentation or a DVD presentation based on whether the first information comprises a macroblock measurement and whether the second information comprises an audio compression measurement, and wherein deciding whether the selected one of the plurality of media content sources is the at least one of the live digital television broadcast, the time-shifted digital television presentation or the DVD presentation comprises deciding that the selected one of the plurality of media content sources is at least one of the live digital television broadcast or the time-shifted digital television if the first information comprises the macroblock measurement and the second information comprises the audio compression measurement, wherein the macroblock measurement is representative of a media content presentation exhibiting substantially no macroblocking and the audio compression measurement is representative of AC3 compression; and

identifying the monitored media content based on identification information associated with at least one of the video signal or the audio signal.

10. A method as defined in claim 9 wherein deciding that the selected one of the plurality of media content sources is the at least one of the live digital television broadcast or the time-shifted digital television is based on detecting a timeshift associated with the monitored media content.

12. A multi-engine meter to monitor media content provided by a selected one of a plurality of media content sources for presentation by an information presenting device, the multi-engine meter comprising:

at least one audio engine to process audio samples corresponding to the monitored media content;

at least one video engine to process video samples corresponding to the monitored media content;

at least one metadata engine to process at least one of the audio samples or the video samples; and

a decision processor to evaluate a decision tree comprising at least two decision nodes to identify the selected one of the plurality of media content sources, each decision node of the decision tree corresponding to a decision metric evaluated using information generated by at least one of the at least one audio engine, the at least one video engine or the at least one metadata engine, a second decision node of the decision tree being selected for evaluation based on an outcome of evaluating a preceding first decision node of the decision tree.

13. A multi-engine meter as defined in claim 12 wherein the at least one audio engine comprises at least one of an audio code detector, an audio signature processor, a volume and mute detector, a compression detector, a jingle detector or a spectral shape processor.

14. A multi-engine meter as defined in claim 12 wherein the at least one video engine comprises at least one of a text detector, a blurriness detector, a scene change and blank frame detector, a macroblock detector or a template matcher.

15. A multi-engine meter as defined in claim 12 wherein the at least one metadata engine comprises at least one of an AMOL processor, a closed caption processor or a teletext processor.

16. An article of manufacture storing machine readable instructions which, when executed, cause a machine to:

determine first information based on a video signal corresponding to monitored media content provided by a selected one of a plurality of media content sources for presentation by an information presenting device;

determine second information based on an audio signal corresponding to the monitored media content;

identify the selected one of the plurality of media content sources based on a decision tree comprising at least two decision nodes, a first decision node corresponding to a first classification decision resulting from processing the first information and a second decision node corresponding to a second classification decision resulting from processing the second information; and

identify the monitored media content based on identification information associated with at least one of the video signal or the audio signal.

17. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 16 wherein the first information comprises at least one of detected metadata, detected text, a blurriness measurement, a detected blank frame;

a macroblock measurement or a detected template.

18. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 17 wherein the detected metadata comprises at least one of AMOL data, closed caption data or teletext data.

19. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 16 wherein the second information comprises at least one of a detected audio code, a detected audio signature, a volume measurement, an audio compression measurement, a jingle measurement or an audio spectral shape measurement.