Methods and apparatus to perform audio watermarking and watermark detection and extraction

• US 8,359,205 B2
• Filed: 08/31/2009
• Issued: 01/22/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/24/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nielsen Company (US) LLC (RR Donnelley & Sons Company)
• Original Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Inventors: Srinivasan, Venugopal, Topchy, Alexander
• Primary Examiner(s): Han, Qi
• Application Number:
  US12/551,220
• Publication Number:
  US 20100106510A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,240 Days
• Field of Search: 704/500, 704/501, 704/502, 704/200
• US Class Current: 704/500
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/683 using metadata automatically derived from the content
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/10 Digital recording or reproducing
• 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 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

Abstract

Methods and apparatus to audio watermarking and watermark detection and extracted are described herein. An example method includes receiving a media content signal, sampling the media content signal to generate samples, storing the samples in a buffer, determining a first sequence of samples in the buffer, determining a second sequence of samples in the buffer, wherein the second sequence of samples is of substantially equal length as the first sequence of samples, calculating an average of the first sequence of samples and the second sequence of samples to generate an average sequence of samples, extracting an identifier from the average sequence of samples, and storing the identifier in a tangible memory.

Claims

1. A method to extract identifiers from media, the method comprising:

sampling an audio signal to generate digital samples;

storing the samples in a buffer;

determining a first sequence of samples in the buffer;

determining a second sequence of samples in the buffer, wherein the second sequence of samples is of substantially equal length as the first sequence of samples;

calculating an average of the first sequence of samples and the second sequence of samples to generate an average sequence of samples;

extracting an identifier from the average sequence of samples, wherein the identifier is repeated in the media signal after a period of T seconds and wherein determining the second sequence of samples comprises selecting a sequence of samples that starts T seconds after a start of the first sequence of samples; and

storing the identifier in a tangible memory.

2. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising determining if a stacking process is to be utilized.

3. A method as defined in claim 2, wherein calculating the average of the first sequence of samples is performed based on the determination.

4. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein calculating the average of the first sequence of samples and the second sequence of samples includes summing the first sequence of samples and the second sequence of samples to generate a summed sequence of samples.

5. A method as defined in claim 4, wherein calculating the average of the first sequence of samples and the second sequence of samples further includes dividing the summed sequence of samples by a number of sequences of samples included in the summed sequence of samples.

6. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein calculating the average of the first sequence of samples and the second sequence of samples to generate the average sequence of samples comprises calculating the average of the first sequence of samples and the respective ones of the second sequence of samples to generate the average sequence of samples.

7. A storage device or storage disk comprising instructions that, when executed, cause a machine to at least:

determine a first sequence of samples of an audio signal, the samples stored in a buffer;

determine a second sequence of samples in the buffer, wherein the second sequence of samples is of substantially equal length as the first sequence of samples;

calculate an average of the first sequence of samples and the second sequence of samples to generate an average sequence of samples;

extract an identifier from the average sequence of samples, wherein the identifier is repeated in the media signal after a period of T seconds and wherein the second sequence of samples is determined by selecting a sequence of samples that starts T seconds after a start of the first sequence of samples; and

store the identifier in a tangible memory.

8. The storage device or storage disk as defined in claim 7, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the machine to determine if a stacking process is to be utilized.

9. The storage device or storage disk as defined in claim 8, wherein calculating the average of the first sequence of samples is performed based on the determination.

10. The storage device or storage disk as defined in claim 7, wherein calculating the average of the first sequence of samples and the second sequence of samples includes summing the first sequence of samples and the second sequence of samples to generate a summed sequence of samples.

11. The storage device or storage disk as defined in claim 10, wherein calculating the average of the first sequence of samples and the second sequence of samples further includes dividing the summed sequence of samples by a number of sequences of samples included in the summed sequence of samples.

12. The storage device or storage disk as defined in claim 7, wherein calculating the average of the first sequence of samples and the second sequence of samples to generate the average sequence of samples comprises calculating the average of the first sequence of samples and respective ones of the second sequence of samples to generate the average sequence of samples.

13. An apparatus to extract identifiers from media, the apparatus comprising:

a time domain to frequency domain converter to, sample an audio signal to generate samples, and store the samples in a buffer;

a stacker to determine a first sequence of samples in the buffer, determine a second sequence of samples in the buffer, wherein the second sequence of samples is of substantially equal length as the first sequence of samples, calculate an average of the first sequence of samples and the second sequence of samples to generate an average sequence of samples; and

a decoder to extract an identifier from the average sequence of samples and store the identifier in a tangible memory, wherein the identifier is repeated in the media signal after a period of T seconds and wherein the stacker determines the second sequence of samples by selecting a sequence of samples that starts T seconds after a start of the first sequence of samples wherein at least one of the time domain to frequency domain converter, the stacker, or the decoder comprises a storage device or storage disk.

14. An apparatus as defined in claim 13, further comprising a stacker controller to determine if a stacking process is to be utilized.

15. An apparatus as defined in claim 14, wherein calculating the average of the first sequence of samples is performed based on the determination.

16. An apparatus as defined in claim 13, wherein calculating the average of the first sequence of samples and the second sequence of samples includes summing the first sequence of samples and the second sequence of samples to generate a summed sequence of samples.

17. An apparatus as defined in claim 16, wherein calculating the average of the first sequence of samples and the second sequence of samples further includes dividing the summed sequence of samples by a number of sequences of samples included in the summed sequence of samples.

18. An apparatus as defined in claim 13, wherein calculating the average of the first sequence of samples and the second sequence of samples to generate the average sequence of samples comprises calculating the average of the first sequence of samples and respective ones of the second sequence of samples to generate the average sequence of samples.