Methods for identifying relevant metadata for multimedia data of a large-scale matching system

• US 9,798,795 B2
• Filed: 01/05/2009
• Issued: 10/24/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 10/26/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cortica Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Cortica Ltd.
• Inventors: Raichelgauz, Igal, Odinaev, Karina, Zeevi, Yehoshua Y
• Primary Examiner(s): Vo, Truong
• Application Number:
  US12/348,888
• Publication Number:
  US 20090112864A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,214 Days
• Field of Search: 707767, 707758
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/14 Details of searching files based on file metadata
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/152 using file content signatures, e.g. hash values
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/172 Caching, prefetching or hoarding of files
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1748 De-duplication implemented within the file system, e.g. based on file segments de-duplication techniques in storage systems for the management of data blocks G06F3/0641
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2228 Indexing structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/284 Relational databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/285 Clustering or classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/35 Clustering; Classification
• 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 16/41 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• 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 16/435 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/438 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/4393 Multimedia presentations, e.g. slide shows, multimedia albums
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/45 Clustering; Classification
• 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 16/483 using metadata automatically derived from the content
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/487 using geographical or spatial information, e.g. location
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/51 : Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/683 : using metadata automatically derived from the content
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/685 : using automatically derived transcript of audio data, e.g. lyrics speech recognition G10L15/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/739 : in form of a video summary, e.g. the video summary being a video sequence, a composite still image or having synthesized frames
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/783 : using metadata automatically derived from the content
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/7834 : using audio features
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/7844 : using original textual content or text extracted from visual content or transcript of audio data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/7847 : using low-level visual features of the video content
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/904 : Browsing; Visualisation therefor for navigating the web G06F16/954; browsing optimisation for the web G06F16/957
• 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 16/9558 : Details of hyperlinks; Management of linked annotations
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 17/16 : Matrix or vector computation , e.g. matrix-matrix or matrix-vector multiplication, matrix factorization matrix transposition G06F7/78
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/048 : Interaction techniques based on graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 : for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 : using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/134 : Hyperlinking
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 20/00 : Machine learning
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 3/045 : Combinations of networks
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 3/048 : Activation functions
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 3/063 : using electronic means
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 3/088 : Non-supervised learning, e.g. competitive learning
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/02 : Knowledge representation; Symbolic representation
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/022 : Knowledge engineering; Knowledge acquisition
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/025 : Extracting rules from data
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/04 : Inference or reasoning models
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 7/01 : Probabilistic graphical models, e.g. probabilistic networks
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 : Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0246 : Traffic
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 : based on user location
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 19/006 : Mixed reality object pose determination, tracking or camera calibration for mixed reality G06T7/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/764 : using classification, e.g. of video objects
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/40 : in video content extracting overlay text G06V20/62; video retrieval G06F16/70; processing of video elementary streams in video servers H04N21/234; processing of video elementary streams in video clients H04N21/44
• 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 2201/10 : Recognition assisted with metadata
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/171 : Local features and components; Facial parts eye characteristics G06V40/18; Occluding parts, e.g. glasses; Geometrical relationships
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/0092 : Nutrition
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 : Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/32 : Multiple recognisers used in sequence or in parallel; Score combination systems therefor, e.g. voting systems
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/51 : for comparison or discrimination
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/103 : Transmitter-side switching
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/26 : Arrangements for switching distribution systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/93 : which locates resources of other pieces of information, e.g. URL [Uniform Resource Locator]
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 2201/90 : characterised by the use of signatures
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/33 : Arrangements for monitoring the users' behaviour or opinions
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/37 : for identifying segments of broadcast information, e.g. scenes or extracting programme ID
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/46 : for recognising users' preferences
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/49 : for identifying locations
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/56 : Arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition covered by groups H04H60/29-H04H60/54
• 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: H04H 60/66 : for using the result on distributors' side
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/71 : using meteorological information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/18 : Commands or executable codes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/42 : Mailbox-related aspects, e.g. synchronisation of mailboxes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/75 : Media network packet handling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/765 : intermediate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 : based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 : in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 : User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 : Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/63 : Routing a service request depending on the request content or context
• 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 21/25891 : 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 21/26603 : for automatically generating descriptors from content, e.g. when it is not made available by its provider, using content analysis techniques
• 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 21/278 : Content descriptor database or directory service for end-user access details of content or meta data based information retrieval of video data in video databases G06F16/739
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/466 : Learning process for intelligent management, e.g. learning user preferences for recommending movies services using the results of monitoring in broadcast systems H04H60/61
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8106 : involving special audio data, e.g. different tracks for different languages
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 : Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 : Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 : Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image

Abstract

A method for associate metadata to a multimedia content based on finding matches to similar multimedia content. A given input multimedia content is matched to at least another multimedia content with corresponding metadata. Upon determination of a match, the corresponding metadata is used as metadata of the given multimedia content. When a large number of multimedia data is compared a ranked list of metadata is provided. The most appropriate metadata is associated to the given multimedia content based on various criteria. The method can be implemented in any applications which involve large-scale content-based clustering, recognition and classification of multimedia data, such as, content-tracking, video filtering, multimedia taxonomy generation, video fingerprinting, speech-to-text, audio classification, object recognition, video search and any other application requiring content-based signatures generation and matching for large content volumes such as, web and other large-scale databases.

Claims

1. A method for identifying and associating metadata to input multimedia data elements, comprising:

comparing an input first multimedia data element to at least one second multimedia data element by generating for each of said input first multimedia data element and said at least one second multimedia data element a first signature and a second signature, said first signature is a robust signature, and comparing between at least a first signature of said first multimedia data element and at least one of a first signature and a second signature of said at least one second multimedia data element;

collecting metadata of said at least one second multimedia data element when a match is found between said first multimedia data element and said at least one second multimedia data element;

associating, when said match is found between said first multimedia data element and said at least one second multimedia data element, at least a subset of said collected metadata of said at least one second multimedia data element with said first multimedia data element; and

storing said first multimedia data element and said associated metadata in a storage.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said at least one second multimedia data element comprises a set of multimedia data elements.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein a multimedia data element is selected from the group consisting of an image, graphics, a video stream, a video clip, an audio stream, an audio clip, a video frame, a photograph, images of signals, combinations thereof, and portions thereof.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein said images of signals are images selected from the group consisting of medical signals, geophysical signals, subsonic signals, supersonic signals, electromagnetic signals, and infrared signals.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

comparing between at least a second signature of said first multimedia data element and at least one of a first signature and a second signature of said at least one second multimedia data element.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said comparing is performed on a plurality of computational cores, which each of said computation cores is configured to receive said first multimedia data element.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

setting properties of each of said plurality of computational cores to be independently of each other core.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein associating said at least subset of said collected metadata to said first multimedia data element further comprising:

sorting said collected metadata; and

associating a subset of components of said collected metadata that is above a predetermined threshold as metadata for said first multimedia data element.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

selecting a first metadata from said at least a subset of said collected metadata;

searching for at least a third multimedia data element having said first metadata;

comparing said first multimedia element to said third multimedia element;

collecting metadata associated with said third multimedia data element if a match is found between said first multimedia data element and said third multimedia data element; and

adding said metadata associated with said third multimedia data element to metadata of said first multimedia data element.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein comparing said first multimedia element to said third multimedia element further comprising:

generating for said third multimedia data element a first signature and a second signature, said first signature is a robust signature; and

comparing between at least a first signature of said first multimedia data element and at least one of a first signature and a second signature of said third multimedia data element.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein comparing said first multimedia element to said third multimedia element further comprising:

comparing between at least a second signature of said first multimedia data element and at least one of;

a first signature and a second signature of said third multimedia data element.

12. A system for collecting metadata for a first multimedia data element, comprising:

a plurality of computational cores configured to receive the first multimedia data element, each core having properties to be independent of each other core, each said core generates responsive to the first multimedia data element a first signature element and a second signature element, said first signature element is a robust signature;

a storage unit for storing at least one second multimedia data element, metadata associated with said second multimedia data element, and at least one of a first signature and a second signature associated with said second multimedia data element, said first signature is a robust signature; and

a comparison unit coupled to said plurality of computational cores and to said storage unit, wherein the comparison unit is configured to compare signatures of multimedia data elements for the purpose of determining matches between multimedia data elements;

wherein responsive to receiving the first multimedia data element said plurality of computational cores generate a respective first signature of said first multimedia element and a second signature of said first multimedia data element, for the purpose of determining a match with said at least one second multimedia data element stored in said storage and associating at least a subset of metadata associated with said at least one second multimedia data element with said first multimedia data element.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein said multimedia data element is selected from the group consisting of an image, graphics, a video stream, a video clip, an audio stream, an audio clip, a video frame, a photograph, images of signals, a combinations thereof, and portions thereof.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein said images of signals are images selected from the group consisting of medical signals, geophysical signals, subsonic signals, supersonic signals, electromagnetic signals, and infrared signals.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein said comparison unit compares between at least a first signature of said first multimedia data element and at least one of:

a first signature and a second signature of said at least one second multimedia data element.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein said comparison unit compares between at least the second signature of said first multimedia data element and at least one of:

a first signature and a second signature of said at least one second multimedia data element.

17. The system of claim 12, said system configured to sort metadata collected from said at least one second multimedia data element for using a subset of said collected metadata that is above a predetermined threshold as metadata for said first multimedia data element.

18. The system of claim 12, said system is further configured to select a first metadata from said at least a subset of said collected metadata, search for at least a third multimedia data element having said first metadata, compare said first multimedia element to said third multimedia element, collect metadata associated with said third multimedia data element if a match is found between said first multimedia data element and said third multimedia data element, and add said metadata associated with said third multimedia data element to metadata of said first multimedia data element.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein said system is configured to compare said first multimedia element to said third multimedia element by comparing between at least the first signature of said first multimedia data element and at least one of:

a first signature and a second signature of said at least third multimedia data element.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein said system is configured to compare said first multimedia element to said third multimedia element by comparing between at least a second signature of said first multimedia data element and at least one of:

a first signature and a second signature of said at least third multimedia data element.

21. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon computer executable code when executed causing a processor to perform the process of identifying and associating metadata to input multimedia data elements, comprising:

comparing an input first multimedia data element to at least one second multimedia data element by generating for each of said input first multimedia data element and said at least one second multimedia data element a first signature and a second signature, said first signature is a robust signature, and comparing between at least a first signature of said first multimedia data element and at least one of a first signature and a second signature of said at least one second multimedia data element;

collecting metadata of said at least one second multimedia data element when a match is found between said first multimedia data element and said at least one second multimedia data element;

associating at least a subset of said collected metadata with said first multimedia data element; and

storing said first multimedia data element and said associated metadata in a storage.