Method and system for filtering advertisements in a media stream

• US 9,438,860 B2
• Filed: 06/26/2007
• Issued: 09/06/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Beyabani, Syed Zafar
• Primary Examiner(s): Lonsberry, Hunter B
• Assistant Examiner(s): TELAN, MICHAEL R
• Application Number:
  US11/768,216
• Publication Number:
  US 20090007195A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,360 Days
• Field of Search: 725/19, 725/32, 725/37, 725/44, 725 46- 47, 725/52, 725/61, 725/74
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 21/458 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 21/4663 involving probabilistic networks, e.g. Bayesian networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4756 for rating content, e.g. scoring a recommended movie
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/163 by receiver means only

Abstract

A system and method may include receiving a media stream via a media delivery network, the media stream comprising a plurality of media segments, measuring a plurality of characteristics of a media segment of the plurality of media segments, and assigning a characteristics score to each of the plurality of characteristics. The system and method may further include applying a filter to the media segment to generate a media segment score based on the characteristics scores and to compare the media segment score with a threshold, and outputting a filtered media stream from the filter.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a live media stream;

receiving, from a user, a selection to pause the received live media stream, wherein the selection enables program filtering of the received live media stream while the received live media stream is paused;

receiving at least a portion of the received live media stream via a media delivery network;

processing a plurality of characteristics of media segments of the received live media stream, wherein the plurality of characteristics comprises one or more characteristics not based on metadata included in the received live media stream;

assigning a characteristics score to each of the plurality of characteristics;

comparing the assigned characteristics score with previously examined characteristics scores, wherein each of the previously examined characteristics scores are associated with one or more previously processed media segments;

determining whether the assigned characteristics score corresponds to at least one of the previously examined characteristics scores, based on the comparison;

upon determining that the assigned characteristics score does not correspond to at least one of the previously examined characteristics scores, creating a filtered live media stream by applying a filter to the media segment, based on the received selection that enabled program filtering, to generate a media segment score based on a formula that applies numerical weights to the assigned characteristics scores and to compare the media segment score with a threshold, wherein the filtering of the paused received live media stream comprises removing the media segment from the paused received live media stream upon the media segment score not meeting or exceeding the threshold;

outputting the filtered live media stream from the filter for displaying or recoding of the filtered live media stream.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the media segment score indicates a prediction of whether the media segment is an advertisement media segment.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the characteristics scores indicates whether a blank media segment preceded the media segment.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the characteristics scores indicates whether the media segment includes a call sign.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the characteristics scores indicates whether the media segment includes closed captioning (CC) text.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the characteristics scores indicates audio traits of the media segment.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the characteristics scores indicates video traits of the media segment.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the characteristics scores indicates a time elapsed since a previous advertisement media segment.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the characteristics scores indicates whether schedule data from an Electronic Program Guide (EPG) is available.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising identifying a beginning and an ending of the media segment based on a changes in the characteristics scores.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising storing pointers indicating the beginning and the ending of the media segment.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the media segment score is generated based on a formula that applies an equal numerical weighting to the characteristics scores.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the media segment score is generated based on a formula that applies an unequal numerical weighting to the characteristics scores.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein updating the formula of the filter comprises updating a weighting applied to each of the characteristics scores relative to one another.

15. A non-transitory computer readable media comprising code to perform the acts of the method of claim 1.

16. An apparatus comprising:

a user interface module, the user interface module configured to;

receive, from a user, a selection to pause a received live media stream, wherein the selection enables program filtering of the received lived media stream while the received live media stream is paused; and

a media tracker module communicatively coupled to a network and the user interface module, the media tracker module configured to;

receive the live media stream;

receive at least a portion of the received live media stream via the network, the received live media stream comprising a plurality of received media segments,

examine a plurality of characteristics of a media segment of the plurality of received media segments, wherein the plurality of characteristics comprises one or more characteristics not based on metadata included in the paused media stream, and

assign a characteristics score to each of the plurality of characteristics, and

a filter module communicatively coupled to the media tracker module, the filter module configured to;

compare the assigned characteristics score with previously examined characteristics scores, wherein each of the previously examined characteristics scores are associated with one or more previously processed media segments of the plurality of received media segments,

determine whether the assigned characteristics score corresponds to at least one of the previously examined characteristics scores, based on the comparison;

upon determining that the assigned characteristics score does not correspond to at least one of the previously examined characteristics scores, create a filtered live media stream by filtering the media segment, based on the received selection that enabled program filtering, by generating a media segment score based on a formula that applies numerical weights to the assigned characteristics scores and comparing the media segment score with a threshold, wherein the filter module removes the media segment from the paused received live media stream upon the media segment score not meeting or exceeding the threshold.

17. A system comprising:

a processor; and

a memory comprising computer-readable instructions which when executed by the processor cause the processor to perform the steps comprising;

receiving a live media stream;

receiving, from a user, a selection to pause the received live media stream, wherein the selection enables program filtering of the received live media stream while the received live media stream is paused;

receiving at least a portion of the received live media stream via a media delivery network, the received live media stream comprising a plurality of received media segments;

processing a plurality of characteristics of media segments of the plurality of received media segments, wherein the plurality of characteristics comprises one or more characteristics based on one or more characteristics not based on metadata included in the received live media stream;

assigning a characteristics score to each of the plurality of characteristics;

comparing the assigned characteristics score with previously examined characteristics scores, wherein the previously examined characteristics scores are associated with one or more previously processed media segments;

determining whether the assigned characteristics score corresponds to at least one of the previously examined characteristics scores, based on the comparison;

upon determining that the assigned characteristics score does not correspond to at least one of the previously examined characteristics scores, creating a filtered live media stream by applying a filter to the media segment, based on the received selection that enabled the program filtering, to generate a media segment score based on a formula that applies numerical weights to the assigned characteristics scores and to compare the media segment score with a threshold, wherein filtering the paused received live media stream removes the media segment from the paused media stream upon the media segment score does not meeting or exceeding the threshold;

outputting the filtered live media stream from the filter for displaying or recording of the filtered live media stream.