Methods and apparatus for optimizing station reference fingerprint loading using reference watermarks

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11469841-B2
Application number	US-202017121303-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 14, 2020
Priority date	Dec 26, 2018
Publication date	Oct 11, 2022
Grant date	Oct 11, 2022

Abstract

Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture are disclosed selectively generating and storing hashed reference signatures. An example method disclosed herein determining whether watermark coverage of a first media segment satisfies a dropout constraint, the first media segment corresponding to a first monitoring time interval of a media source feed and, when the watermark coverage of the first media segment does not satisfy the dropout constraint hashing first media signatures associated with the first media segment to generate corresponding first hashed signatures and generating first reference data for the first media segment, the first reference data including the first hashed signatures and the first media signatures. The example method further includes, when the watermark coverage of the first media segment satisfies the dropout constraint, generating second reference data for the first media segment, the second reference data including the first media signatures.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus comprising:
memory; and
at least one processor to execute computer readable instructions to:
determine whether watermark coverage of a first media segment satisfies a dropout constraint, the first media segment corresponding to a first monitored time interval of a media source feed, the first media segment having corresponding first media signatures;
in response to a determination that the watermark coverage of the first media segment does not satisfy a dropout constraint, generate first reference data for the first media segment, the first reference data including first hashed signatures and the first media signatures, the first hashed signatures generated from the first media signatures; and
in response to a determination that the watermark coverage of the first media segment does satisfy the dropout constraint, generate second reference data for the first media segment without generating the first hashed signatures, the second reference data including the first media signatures.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor is to hash the first media signatures associated with the first media segment to generate the first hashed signatures when the watermark coverage of the first media segment does not satisfy the dropout constraint.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor is to:
determine whether the watermark coverage of a second media segment satisfies the dropout constraint, the second media segment having corresponding second media signatures;
when the watermark coverage of the second media segment does not satisfy the dropout constraint, generate third reference data for the second media segment, the third reference data including second hashed signatures and the second media signatures, the second hashed signatures generated from the second media signatures; and
when the watermark coverage of the second media segment satisfies the dropout constraint, generate fourth reference data for the second media segment, the fourth reference data including the second media signatures but not including the second hashed signatures.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the processor is to provide at least one of the first reference data, the second reference data, the third reference data or the fourth reference data to a media monitor that is to credit viewership of the media source feed.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor is to obtain a watermark reference associated with the first media segment, the watermark reference based on a watermark encoded in the first media segment.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the watermark reference is generated based on the media source feed.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the dropout constraint corresponds to an amount of watermark coverage associated with the first media segment that allows identification of the first media segment using the watermark reference.

8. An apparatus comprising:
means for determining whether watermark coverage of a first media segment satisfies a dropout constraint, the first media segment corresponding to a first monitored time interval of a media source feed, the first media segment having corresponding first media signatures; and
means for generating reference data, the means for generating reference data to:
in response to a determination that the watermark coverage of the first media segment does not satisfy a dropout constraint, generate first reference data for the first media segment, the first reference data including first hashed signatures and the first media signatures, the first hashed signatures generated from the first media signatures; and
in response to a determination that the watermark coverage of the first media segment satisfies the dropout constraint, generate second reference data for the first media segment without generating the first hashed signatures, the second reference data including the first media signatures.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 , further including means for hashing the first media signatures associated with the first media segment to generate the first hashed signatures when the watermark coverage of the first media segment does not satisfy the dropout constraint.

10. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein:
the means for determining is to determine whether the watermark coverage of a second media segment satisfies the dropout constraint, the second media segment having corresponding second media signatures; and
the means for generating reference data is to:
generate third reference data for the second media segment when the watermark coverage of the second media segment does not satisfy the dropout constraint, the third reference data including second hashed signatures and the second media signatures, the second hashed signatures generated from the second media signatures; and
generate fourth reference data for the second media segment when the watermark coverage of the second media segment satisfies the dropout constraint, the fourth reference data including the second media signatures but not including the second hashed signatures.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the means for generating reference data is to provide at least one of the first reference data, the second reference data, the third reference data or the fourth reference data to a media monitor that is to credit viewership of the media source feed.

12. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the means for determining is to determine whether the watermark coverage of the first media segment satisfies the dropout constraint based on whether a watermark reference associated with the first media segment has been obtained, the watermark reference based on a watermark encoded in the first media segment.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 , further including means for obtaining the watermark reference from a reference generator, the reference generator to monitor the media source feed.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the dropout constraint corresponds to an amount of watermark coverage associated with the first media segment that allows identification of the first media segment using the watermark reference.

15. At least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising instructions which, when executed, cause at least one processor to at least:
determine whether watermark coverage of a first media segment satisfies a dropout constraint, the first media segment corresponding to a first monitored time interval of a media source feed, the first media segment having corresponding first media signatures;
in response to a determination that the watermark coverage of the first media segment does not satisfy a dropout constraint, generate first reference data for the first media segment, the first reference data including first hashed signatures and the first media signatures, the first hashed signatures generated from the first media signatures; and
in response to a determination that the watermark coverage of the first media segment satisfies the dropout constraint, generate second reference data for the first media segment, the second reference data including the first media signatures but not including the first hashed signatures.

16. The at least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein the instructions cause the at least one processor to:
determine whether the watermark coverage of a second media segment satisfies the dropout constraint, the second media segment having corresponding second media signatures;
when the watermark coverage of the second media segment does

Assignees

• Nielsen Co Us Llc

Inventors

• Petro James
• Nelson Dan
• Cross Deborah
• Ranganathan Raghuram

Classifications

• H04N21/44204

  Monitoring of content usage, e.g. the number of times a movie has been viewed, copied or the amount which has been watched (monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; protecting generic digital content where the protection is independent of the precise nature of the content G06F21/10; arrangements for monitoring the use made of the broadcast services in broadcast systems H04H60/31) · CPC title

• H04H60/59

  of video {(recognising characters or patterns in general G06F18/00, G06V20/00)} · CPC title

• H04H60/58

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

• H04H60/37

  for identifying segments of broadcast information, e.g. scenes or extracting programme ID · CPC title

• H04H60/31

  Arrangements for monitoring the use made of the broadcast services · CPC title