Methods and apparatus for generating signatures to identify media content using temporal signal characteristics

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10009635-B2
Application number	US-201715431463-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 13, 2017
Priority date	Oct 30, 2008
Publication date	Jun 26, 2018
Grant date	Jun 26, 2018

Abstract

Methods and apparatus to identify media content using temporal signal characteristics are disclosed. An example method includes generating a reference signature based on a reference signal corresponding to known media, generating sums based on peaks in a media signal corresponding to media, identifying signal peaks based on the generated sums, generating a second signature based on normalized curve features, wherein the normalized curve features respectively correspond to the identified signal peaks at a corresponding temporal locations of the corresponding signal peak, and determining whether the media signal corresponds to the reference signal based on a comparison of the reference signature and the second signature.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus, comprising:
a peak detector to detect peaks of a media signal during time intervals and to output absolute values of the detected peaks;
a summer to generate interval sums respective to the time intervals based on the absolute values;
a peak identifier to identify signal peaks based on the interval sums; and
a feature generator to generate a first signature to identify the media signal, the first signature including first normalized curve features based on the signal peaks, at least one of the peak detector, the summer, the peak identifier or the feature generator being implemented with hardware, wherein the first normalized curve features have respective heights, widths, and center locations, the respective heights are equal, and the respective widths are equal.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , further including a correlator to generate an index based on a comparison of the first normalized curve features of the first signature and second normalized curve features of a reference signature.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 , further including an index comparator to compare the index to a threshold to determine whether the first signature matches the reference signature.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , further including a smoother to smooth the interval sums.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first signature has a substantially zero value except at temporal locations corresponding to the normalized curve features.

6. A method, comprising:
determining, by executing one or more instructions with a processor, absolute values of peaks of a media signal, the peaks detected during respective time intervals;
determining, by executing one or more instructions with the processor, interval sums respective to the time intervals based on the absolute values;
identifying, by executing one or more instructions with the processor, signal peaks based on the interval sums; and
generating, by executing one or more instructions with the processor, a first signature to identify the media signal, the first signature including first normalized curve features based on the signal peaks, wherein the first normalized curve features have respective heights, widths, and center locations, the respective heights are equal, and the respective widths are equal.

7. The method of claim 5 , further including generating an index based on a comparison of the first normalized curve features of the first signature and second normalized curve features of a reference signature.

8. The method of claim 6 , further including determining whether the first signature matches the reference signature based on the index.

9. The method of claim 5 , further including smoothing the interval sums.

10. The method of claim 5 , wherein the first signature has a substantially zero value except at temporal locations corresponding to the normalized curve features.

11. A computer readable storage device or storage disk comprising instructions, which, when executed, cause a processor to at least:
determine absolute values of peaks of a media signal, the peaks detected during respective intervals;
determine interval sums respective to the time intervals based on the absolute values;
identify signal peaks based on the interval sums; and
generate a first signature to identify the media signal, the first signature including first normalized curve features based on the signal peaks, wherein the first normalized curve features have respective heights, widths, and center locations, the respective heights are equal and the respective widths are equal.

12. The computer readable storage device or storage disk of claim 11 , further including instructions to cause the processor to generate a match index based on a comparison of the first normalized curve features of the first signature and second normalized curve features of a reference signature.

13. The computer readable storage device or storage disk of claim 12 , further including instructions to cause the processor to determine whether the first signature matches the reference signature based on the match index.

14. The computer readable storage device or storage disk of claim 11 , further including instructions to cause the processor to smooth the interval sums.

15. The computer readable storage device or storage disk of claim 11 , wherein the first signature has a substantially zero value except at temporal locations corresponding to the normalized curve features.

Assignees

• Nielsen Co Us Llc

Inventors

• Lee Morris

Classifications

• G06F2218/10

  by analysing the shape of a waveform, e.g. extracting parameters relating to peaks · CPC title

• G06F2218/14

  by matching peak patterns · CPC title

• H04H60/58 Primary

  of audio {(determination or detection of speech characteristics in general G10L25/00; speech recognition in general G10L15/00)} · CPC title

• H04H2201/90

  characterised by the use of signatures · CPC title

• H04N21/23418 Primary

  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 title