Method for taking action with respect to an electronic media work

• US 9,282,359 B1
• Filed: 03/14/2013
• Issued: 03/08/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/14/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Network-1 Technologies, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Network-1 Technologies, Inc.
• Inventors: Cox, Ingemar J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Chen, Cai
• Application Number:
  US13/830,986
• Time in Patent Office: 1,090 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/248 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/285 Clustering or classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/40 of multimedia data, e.g. slideshows comprising image and additional audio data retrieval of still image data G06F16/50; retrieval of audio data G06F16/60; retrieval of video data G06F16/70
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/43 Querying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/433 using audio data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/434 using image data, e.g. images, photos, pictures taken by a user
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/48 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/487 using geographical or spatial information, e.g. location
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/489 using time information
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/51 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/532 Query formulation, e.g. graphical querying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/5838 using colour
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/5866 using information manually generated, e.g. tags, keywords, comments, manually generated location and time information
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/73 Querying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9566 URL specific, e.g. using aliases, detecting broken or misspelled links
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0256 User search
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 : Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 : Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0625 : Directed, with specific intent or strategy
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 : Accounting
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 2201/90 : characterised by the use of signatures
• 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: H04L 43/16 : Threshold monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/256 : NAT traversal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/611 : for multicast or broadcast systems for broadcast or conference H04L12/18; arrangements for broadcast or distribution combined with broadcast H04H20/00; arrangements for broadcast applications with a direct linkage to broadcast information or to broadcast space-time H04H60/00; selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS], H04W4/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/75 : Media network packet handling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 : based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 : Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72469 : for operating the device by selecting functions from two or more displayed items, e.g. menus or icons
• 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 21/2407 : 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 21/25841 : involving the geographical location of the client retrieval from the Internet by querying based on geographical locations G06F16/9537; arrangements for identifying locations of receiving stations in broadcast systems H04H60/51; location of the user terminal in data switching networks H04L67/52; services making use of the location of users or terminals in wireless networks H04W4/02; locating users or terminals in wireless networks H04W64/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43 : Processing of content or additional data, e.g. demultiplexing additional data from a digital video stream; Elementary client operations, e.g. monitoring of home network or synchronising decoder's clock; Client middleware real-time communication protocols in data switching networks H04L65/00
• 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 21/47815 : Electronic shopping payment schemes, payment architectures or payment protocols for electronic shopping systems G06Q20/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4788 : communicating with other users, e.g. chatting arrangements for providing for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms, to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1813; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6125 : involving transmission via Internet transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 : involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• 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 21/8586 : by using a URL processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94; information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; URL in broadcast information H04H20/93; Web-based protocols H04L67/02

Abstract

A computer-implemented method comprising the steps of running, on a first user electronic device, an application program; correlating, using the application program running on the first user electronic device, with a video program being transmitted to a second user electronic device in a vicinity of the first electronic device; receiving, at the first user electronic device from a first user input device, a query related to at least a portion of the video program; obtaining, at the first user electronic device, instructions for an action to be performed based on the query; and performing, at the first user electronic device, the associated action, in response to the query.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

(a) maintaining, by a computer system comprising one or more or computers, one or more databases stored on computer-readable media comprising;

(1) first electronic data comprising one or more digitally created reference compact electronic representations for each of a plurality of reference electronic works, wherein each digitally created reference compact electronic representations comprises one or more extracted feature vectors of at least one of the plurality of reference electronic works; and

(2) second electronic data associated with one or more of the reference electronic works and related to action information comprising displaying an advertisement corresponding to each of the one or more reference electronic works;

(b) obtaining, by the computer system, a first digitally created compact electronic representation comprising one or more extracted feature vectors of a first electronic work;

(c) identifying, by the computer system, a matching reference electronic work that matches the first electronic work by comparing the first digitally created compact electronic representation of the first electronic work with the first electronic data using an approximate nearest neighbor search, which is a sub-linear search of the first electronic data that identifies a match to the first digitally created compact electronic representation within a threshold but does not guarantee to identify the closest match to the first digitally created compact electronic representation;

(d) determining, by the computer system, the action information corresponding to the matching reference electronic work based on the second electronic data; and

(e) associating, by the computer system, the determined action information with the first electronic work.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first electronic work comprises a digital representation of a video signal.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first electronic work comprises a digital representation of an audio signal.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein each of the one or more extracted feature vectors may be extracted from pseudo-random locations in a frame of the digital representation of the video signal.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the one or more extracted feature vectors may be extracted using frequency decomposition of the digital representation of the audio signal.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first digitally created compact electronic representation comprises a temporal sequence of extracted feature vectors.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the one or more digitally created reference compact electronic representations comprises a temporal sequence of extracted feature vectors.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the second electronic data further comprises a URL.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

(f) generating, at the computer system, machine-readable instructions to perform the determined action at a first electronic media device; and

(g) providing, from the computer system to the electronic media device, the machine-readable instructions in response to a query received from the first electronic media device related to the first electronic work.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the machine-readable instructions are further based on device information relating to the first electronic media device at which the first electronic work is rendered.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the device information comprises a geographic location of the first electronic media device.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the first electronic media device is at least one of a computer, television, set-top box, remote control, wireless phone, or a portable device.

13. The method of claim 2, wherein the video signal is from at least one of a live television broadcast, a commercial, or a recorded program.

14. The method of claim 2, wherein the associated action comprises presenting a user associated with the first user electronic device with additional information about the digital representation of the video signal.

29. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

(f) obtaining, by the computer system, a second digitally created compact electronic representation comprising one or more extracted feature vectors of a second electronic work;

(g) searching, by the computer system, for a matching reference electronic work that matches the second electronic work by comparing the second digitally created compact electronic representation of the second electronic work with the first electronic data using an approximate nearest neighbor search, which is a sub-linear search of the first electronic data that identifies a match to the second digitally created compact electronic representation within a threshold but does not guarantee to identify the closest match to the second digitally created compact electronic representation; and

(h) determining, by the computer system, that as a result of the search no reference electronic work was identified matching the second electronic work.

15. A method comprising:

(a) maintaining, by a computer system comprising one or more or computers, one or more databases stored on computer-readable media comprising;

(1) first electronic data comprising one or more digitally created reference compact electronic representations for each of a plurality of reference electronic works, wherein each digitally created reference compact electronic representations comprises one or more extracted feature vectors of at least one of the plurality of reference electronic works; and

(2) second electronic data associated with one or more of the reference electronic works and related to action information comprising providing an advertisement corresponding to each of the one or more reference electronic works;

(b) obtaining, by the computer system, a first digitally created compact electronic representation comprising one or more extracted feature vectors of a first electronic work;

(c) identifying, by the computer system, a matching reference electronic work that matches the first electronic work by comparing the first digitally created compact electronic representation of the first electronic work with the first electronic data using an approximate nearest neighbor search, which is a sub-linear search of the first electronic data that identifies a match to the first digitally created compact electronic representation within a threshold but does not guarantee to identify the closest match to the first digitally created compact electronic representation;

(d) determining, by the computer system, the action information corresponding to the matching reference electronic work based on the second electronic data; and

(e) associating, by the computer system, the determined action information with the first electronic work.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the first electronic work comprises a digital representation of a video signal.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the first electronic work comprises a digital representation of an audio signal.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein each of the one or more extracted feature vectors may be extracted from pseudo-random locations in a frame of the digital representation of the video signal.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein each of the one or more extracted feature vectors may be extracted using frequency decomposition of the digital representation of the audio signal.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein the first digitally created compact electronic representation comprises a temporal sequence of extracted feature vectors.

21. The method of claim 15, wherein each of the one or more digitally created reference compact electronic representations comprises a temporal sequence of extracted feature vectors.

22. The method of claim 15, wherein the second electronic data comprises a URL.

23. The method of claim 15, further comprising the steps of:

(f) generating, at the computer system, machine-readable instructions to perform the determined action at an electronic media device; and

(g) providing, from the computer system to the electronic media device, the machine-readable instructions in response to a query received from the electronic media device related to the first electronic work.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the machine-readable instructions are further based on device information relating to the first electronic media device at which the first electronic work is rendered.

25. The method of claim 23, wherein the device information comprises a geographic location of the first electronic media device.

26. The method of claim 23, wherein the first electronic media device is at least one of a computer, television, set-top box, remote control, wireless phone, or a portable device.

27. The method of claim 16, wherein the video signal is from at least one of a live television broadcast, a commercial, or a recorded program.

28. The method of claim 16, wherein the associated action comprises presenting a user associated with the first user electronic device with additional information about the digital representation of the video signal.

30. The method of claim 15, further comprising the steps of:

(f) obtaining, by the computer system, a second digitally created compact electronic representation comprising one or more extracted feature vectors of a second electronic work;

(g) searching, by the computer system, for a matching reference electronic work that matches the second electronic work by comparing the second digitally created compact electronic representation of the second electronic work with the first electronic data using an approximate nearest neighbor search;

which is a sub-linear search of the first electronic data that identifies a match to the second digitally created compact electronic representation within a threshold but does not guarantee to identify the closest match to the second digitally created compact electronic representation; and

(h) determining, by the computer system, that as a result of the search no reference electronic work was identified matching the second electronic work.