Signature matching with meter data aggregation for media identification

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12301902-B2
Application number	US-202318365037-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 3, 2023
Priority date	Mar 27, 2020
Publication date	May 13, 2025
Grant date	May 13, 2025

Abstract

Example apparatus disclosed herein to implement signature matching with meter data aggregation for use in media identification applications include a match job aggregator to aggregate batches of meter data from a meter to form aggregated meter data associated with the meter, and a hash matcher to identify a valid hash key match between meter hash keys generated from meter signatures in the aggregated meter data and reference hash keys corresponding to a collection of media assets. Disclosed example apparatus also include a signature matcher to align, based on the valid hash key match, a sequence of reference signatures corresponding to a first media asset associated with the valid hash key match and a corresponding sequence of the meter signatures, and compare the sequence of reference signatures and the corresponding sequence of meter signatures to identify media represented by at least a portion of the sequence of the meter signatures.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A media identification system comprising:
a processor; and
at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the media identification system to perform operations comprising:
aggregating batches of meter data from a meter to form aggregated meter data associated with the meter, the batches of meter data corresponding to respective reporting intervals having a first duration, the aggregated meter data corresponding to a monitoring interval having a second duration;
generating meter hash keys from meter signatures in the aggregated meter data;
identifying a valid hash key match between the meter hash keys and reference hash keys corresponding to a collection of media assets; and
aligning, based on the valid hash key match, (i) a sequence of reference signatures corresponding to a duration of a first media asset associated with the valid hash key match with (ii) a corresponding sequence of the meter signatures in the aggregated meter data.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:
providing for output (i) an identifier of media represented by the at least a portion of the sequence of the meter signatures, and (ii) a third duration corresponding to a duration represented by the at least the portion of the sequence of the meter signatures, wherein the identifier and the third duration are provided for output to an application that is to perform an operation based on the identifier and the third duration.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the second duration corresponds to a twenty-four period, and the first duration corresponds to a fraction of the twenty-four period.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein the sequence of reference signatures corresponds to an entirety of the first media asset.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:
identifying, for a first one of the meter hash keys, a set of reference hash keys that match the first one of the meter hash keys;
storing ones of the set of reference hash keys in respective data structures corresponding to media assets represented by the ones of the set of reference hash keys, the media assets including the first media asset, a first one of the data structures corresponding to the first media asset, the first one of the data structures to include a sequence of reference hash keys that match a corresponding sequence of the meter hash keys; and
determining that the first one of the sequence of reference hash keys included in the first one of the data structures corresponds to the valid hash key match when the sequence of reference hash keys and the corresponding sequence of the meter hash keys satisfy one or more validation criteria.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein aligning the sequence of reference signatures with the corresponding sequence of the meter signatures comprises:
identifying a first number of signatures from (i) an initial reference signature of the sequence of reference signatures corresponding to the duration of the first media asset to (ii) a reference signature in the sequence of reference signatures that corresponds to an initial reference hash key in the sequence of reference hash keys corresponding to the valid hash key match;
identifying an initial meter signature of the sequence of meter signatures to be a first meter signature in the aggregated meter data that precedes, by the first number of signatures, a second meter signature in the aggregated meter data that corresponds to an initial meter hash key in the sequence of the meter hash keys corresponding to the valid hash key match; and
determining the sequence of meter hash keys to begin with the initial meter signature and include a same second number of signatures as the sequence of reference signatures.

7. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause a processor to perform operations comprising:
aggregating batches of meter data from a meter to form aggregated meter data associated with the meter, the batches of meter data corresponding to respective reporting intervals having a first duration, the aggregated meter data corresponding to a monitoring interval having a second duration;
generating meter hash keys from meter signatures in the aggregated meter data;
identifying a valid hash key match between the meter hash keys and reference hash keys corresponding to a collection of media assets;
aligning, based on the valid hash key match, (i) a sequence of reference signatures corresponding to a duration of a first media asset associated with the valid hash key match with (ii) a corresponding sequence of the meter signatures in the aggregated meter data, and
generating an output that characterizes media represented by at least a portion of the sequence of the meter signatures.

8. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 7 , wherein the operations further comprise:
providing for output (i) an identifier of media represented by the at least the portion of the sequence of the meter signatures, and (ii) a third duration corresponding to a duration represented by the at least the portion of the sequence of the meter signatures, wherein the identifier and the third duration are provided for output to an application that is to perform an operation based on the identifier and the third duration.

9. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 7 , wherein the second duration corresponds to a twenty-four period, and the first duration corresponds to a fraction of the twenty-four period.

10. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 9 , wherein the sequence of reference signatures corresponds to an entirety of the first media asset.

11. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 7 , wherein the operations further comprise:
identifying, for a first one of the meter hash keys, a set of reference hash keys that match the first one of the meter hash keys;
storing ones of the set of reference hash keys in respective data structures corresponding to media assets represented by the ones of the set of reference hash keys, the media assets including the first media asset, a first one of the data structures corresponding to the first media asset, the first one of the data structures to include a sequence of reference hash keys that match a corresponding sequence of the meter hash keys; and
determining that the first one of the sequence of reference hash keys included in the first one of the data structures corresponds to the valid hash key match when the sequence of reference hash keys and the corresponding sequence of the meter hash keys satisfy one or more validation criteria.

12. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 11 , wherein aligning the sequence of reference signatures with the corresponding sequence of the meter signatures comprises:
identifying a first number of signatures from (i) an initial reference signature of the sequence of reference signatures corresponding to the duration of the first media asset to (ii) a reference signature in the sequence of reference signatures that corresponds to an initial reference hash key in the sequence of reference hash keys corresponding to the valid hash key match;
identifying an initial meter signature of the sequence of meter signatures to be a first meter signature in the aggregated meter data that precedes, by the first number of signatures, a second meter signature in the aggregated meter data that corresponds to an initial meter hash key in the sequence of the meter hash keys corresponding to the valid hash key match; and
determining the sequen

Assignees

• Nielsen Co Us Llc

Inventors

• Nelson Daniel
• Ranganathan Raghuram

Classifications

• H04N21/835

  Generation of protective data, e.g. certificates {(protecting software against unauthorised usage in a vending or licensing environment G06F21/10)} · CPC title

• H04N21/2353

  specifically adapted to content descriptors, e.g. coding, compressing or processing of metadata · CPC title

• H04N21/23418

  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 title

• H04H2201/90

  characterised by the use of signatures · CPC title

• H04H60/31

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