Methods and systems for automatically evaluating an audio description track of a media asset

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10674208-B2
Application number	US-201816169453-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 24, 2018
Priority date	Jul 29, 2016
Publication date	Jun 2, 2020
Grant date	Jun 2, 2020

Abstract

Methods and systems for automatically evaluating an audio description track of a media asset include initializing a rating of an audio description track of a media asset to a default value; receiving a first video frame and a second video frame of the media asset; detecting an object in the first video frame and the second video frame; determining that a difference in a characteristic of the object between the first video frame and the second video frame exceeds a threshold difference; determining that an audio characteristic in a portion of the audio description track that corresponds to the first video frame and the second video frame exceeds a threshold audio characteristic; and increasing the rating of the audio description track by a unit.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for automatically evaluating an audio description track of a media asset, the method comprising:
receiving a first video frame and a second video frame of the media asset;
detecting an object in the first video frame;
determining whether a characteristic of the object in the first video frame is different from the characteristic of an object in the second video frame, wherein an audio description track provides audio descriptions of visual events occurring in the media asset;
in response to determining that the characteristic of the object in the first video frame is different from the characteristic of the object in the second video frame, determining whether a portion of the audio description track that corresponds to at least the second video frame includes an audio characteristic; and
in response to determining that the portion of the audio description track includes the audio characteristic, adjusting a rating of the audio description track.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising, in response to determining that the portion of the audio description track does not include the audio characteristic, generating audio content, in the portion of the audio description track, the audio content corresponding to at least one of the object or the characteristic of the object.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein detecting the object in the first video frame comprises:
detecting a first object and a second object in the first video frame;
determining a first subset of a plurality of pixels of a display screen in which the first object occurs in the first video frame;
determining a second subset of the plurality of pixels in which the second object occurs in the first video frame;
determining that a number of pixels in the first subset is greater than a number of pixels in the second subset; and
selecting the first object to be the object.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein detecting the object in the first video frame comprises:
detecting a first object and a second object in the first video frame;
receiving metadata associated with the first video frame;
detecting an identifier of the first object in the metadata; and
selecting the first object to be the object.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the first object is a character, and detecting the identifier of the first object in the metadata comprises detecting at least one of a name of the character or an actor who plays the character.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining whether the characteristic of the object in the first video frame is different from the characteristic of the object in the second video frame comprises determining a difference in a position of the object between the first video frame and the second video frame.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein determining the difference in the position of the object between the first video frame and the second video frame comprises:
assigning an address to each pixel of a plurality of pixels of a display screen, wherein each address comprises a horizontal address corresponding to a horizontal position on the display screen of each pixel and a vertical address corresponding to a vertical position on the display screen of each pixel;
determining a first subset of the plurality of pixels in which the object occurs in the first video frame;
determining a second subset of the plurality of pixels in which the object occurs in the second video frame;
calculating a first horizontal mean, wherein the first horizontal mean corresponds to a mean of horizontal addresses of the first subset;
calculating a first vertical mean, wherein the first vertical mean corresponds to a mean of vertical addresses of the first subset;
calculating a second horizontal mean, wherein the second horizontal mean corresponds to a mean of horizontal addresses of the second subset;
calculating a second vertical mean, wherein the second vertical mean corresponds to a mean of vertical addresses of the second subset;
subtracting the second horizontal mean from the first horizontal mean to obtain a horizontal difference;
subtracting the second vertical mean from the first vertical mean to obtain a vertical difference; and
determining the difference in the position of the object based on at least one of the horizontal difference or the vertical difference exceeding a predetermined difference.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining whether the portion of the audio description track that corresponds to at least the second video frame includes the audio characteristic comprises determining a volume of audio content in the portion of the audio description track.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining whether the portion of the audio description track that corresponds to at least the second video frame includes the audio characteristic comprises:
identifying the object with an identifier;
accessing a database of synonyms;
retrieving from the database a plurality of keywords for the identifier, wherein the keywords are synonyms for the identifier; and
determining a number of times in which a keyword of the plurality of keywords or the identifier occurs in the portion of the audio description track.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising generating for display an indication of the rating including at least one of a word, icon, size of a listing, color of the listing, or presence of the listing corresponding to the rating.

11. A system for automatically evaluating an audio description track of a media asset, the system comprising:
communication circuitry; and
control circuitry configured to:
receive, via the communication circuitry, a first video frame and a second video frame of the media asset;
detect an object in the first video frame;
determine whether a characteristic of the object in the first video frame is different from the characteristic of an object in the second video frame, wherein an audio description track provides audio descriptions of visual events occurring in the media asset;
in response to determining that the characteristic of the object in the first video frame is different from the characteristic of the object in the second video frame, determine whether a portion of an audio description track that corresponds to at least the second video frame includes an audio characteristic; and
in response to determining that the portion of the audio description track includes the audio characteristic, adjust a rating of the audio description track.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the control circuitry is further configured to, in response to determining that the portion of the audio description track does not include the audio characteristic, generate audio content, in the portion of the audio description track, the audio content corresponding to at least one of the object or the characteristic of the object.

13. The system of claim 11 , wherein the control circuitry, when detecting the object in the first video frame, is configured to:
detect a first object and a second object in the first video frame;
determine a first subset of a plurality of pixels of a display screen in which the first object occurs in the first video frame;
determine a second subset of the plurality of pixels in which the second object occurs in the first video frame;
determine that a number of pixels in the first subset is greater than a number of pixels in the second subset; and
select the first object to be the object.

14. The system of claim 11 , wherein the control circuitry, when detecting the object in the first video frame, is configured to:
detect a first object

Assignees

• Rovi Guides Inc

Inventors

• Thomas William L
• Shanware Ajit

Classifications

• H04N21/83

  Generation or processing of protective or descriptive data associated with content; Content structuring · CPC title

• H04N21/234318

  by decomposing into objects, e.g. MPEG-4 objects · CPC title

• G06F40/247

  Thesauruses; Synonyms · CPC title

• G10L25/51 Primary

  for comparison or discrimination · CPC title

• H04N21/44008

  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 title