Character based search and discovery of media content

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12316919-B2
Application number	US-202418753249-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 25, 2024
Priority date	Apr 27, 2012
Publication date	May 27, 2025
Grant date	May 27, 2025

Abstract

Mechanisms are provided for character-based and image-based media content search and discovery. Character images or entity images are mapped to corresponding media content. Selection of an image or a portion of an image may trigger or search for corresponding media content or begin playback of relevant media content. Character images or entity images need not correspond to a primary program character or object but may correspond to minor characters or tangential entities depicted periodically on particular programs.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
receiving a trigger for performing a character based search for one or more video segments, wherein the trigger is received in response to selection of a character from a media asset during a display of the media asset;
in response to receiving the trigger, automatically invoking a processor to perform the character based search for the one or more video segments, wherein the character based search is performed by the processor by executing both an image and a voice recognition process to identify the one or more video segments that include a matching image and voice of the character selected from the media asset;
identifying the one or more video segments based on the character based search performed, wherein the identified one or more video segments include the matching image and voice of the character selected from the media asset; and
automatically playing on a display of a mobile device, a first video segment, from the one or more video segments identified, based on a relevance score of the first video segment to the character selected from the media asset.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising, presenting the one or more video segments ranked in order of relevance prior to automatically displaying the first video segment on the mobile device.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein automatically playing the first video segment on the display of the mobile device comprises including the first video segment into a live stream and transmitting the live stream to the mobile device.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising, determining that a current live stream, in which the selection of the character from the media asset is made, includes an upcoming clip in which a default advertisement is to be displayed on the mobile device.

5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising, in response to determining that the current live stream includes the upcoming clip in which the default advertisement is to be displayed on the mobile device, replacing the upcoming clip with a new clip that includes a new advertisement that includes the selected character from the media asset.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising, injecting the new clip with the new advertisement into the current live stream without affecting mobile device application performance.

7. The method of claim 4 , further comprising, in response to determining that the current live stream includes the upcoming clip in which the default advertisement is to be displayed on the mobile device, replacing the current live stream with a new live stream that includes a new advertisement that includes the selected character from the media asset.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the automatically playing of the first video segment is performed immediately after the selection of the character from the media asset.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving a selection of a second character from the media asset during the display of the media asset; and
in response to receiving the selection of the character and the second character, the processor executing both the image and the voice recognition process to identify the one or more video segments that include a matching image and voice of both the character and the second character selected from the media asset.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more video segments identified are portions of separate media assets.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the character based search performed by the processor includes crawling web content to identify the one or more video segments include the matching image and voice of the character selected from the media asset.

12. A system comprising:
a processor configured to access a display of a mobile device; and
a memory, storing instructions to cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
receiving a trigger for performing a character based search for one or more video segments, wherein the trigger is received in response to selection of a character from a media asset during a display of the media asset on the display of the mobile device;
in response to receiving the trigger, automatically invoking the processor to perform the character based search for the one or more video segments, wherein the character based search is performed by the processor by executing both an image and a voice recognition process to identify the one or more video segments that include a matching image and voice of the character selected from the media asset;
identifying the one or more video segments based on the character based search performed, wherein the identified one or more video segments include the matching image and voice of the character selected from the media asset; and
automatically playing on the display of the mobile device, a first video segment, from the one or more video segments identified, based on a relevance score of the first video segment to the character selected from the media asset.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the stored instructions further cause the processor to perform operations comprising, presenting the one or more video segments ranked in order of relevance prior to automatically displaying the first video segment on the mobile device.

14. The system of claim 12 , wherein automatically playing the first video segment on the display of the mobile device comprises including the first video segment into a live stream and transmitting the live stream to the mobile device.

15. The system of claim 12 , wherein the stored instructions further cause the processor to perform operations comprising, determining that a current live stream, in which the selection of the character from the media asset is made, includes an upcoming clip in which a default advertisement is to be displayed on the mobile device.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the stored instructions further cause the processor to perform operations comprising, in response to determining that the current live stream includes the upcoming clip in which the default advertisement is to be displayed on the mobile device, replacing the upcoming clip with a new clip that includes a new advertisement that includes the selected character from the media asset.

17. The system of claim 16 , wherein the stored instructions further cause the processor to perform operations comprising, injecting the new clip with the new advertisement into the current live stream without affecting mobile device application performance.

18. The system of claim 15 , wherein the stored instructions further cause the processor to perform operations comprising, in response to determining that the current live stream includes the upcoming clip in which the default advertisement is to be displayed on the mobile device, replacing the current live stream with a new live stream that includes a new advertisement that includes the selected character from the media asset.

19. The system of claim 12 , wherein the automatically playing of the first video segment is performed immediately after the selection of the character from the media asset.

20. The system of claim 12 , wherein the stored instructions further cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
receiving a selection of a second character from the media asset during the display of the media asset; and
in response to receiving the selection of the character and the second character, the processor executing both the image and the voice recognition process to identify the one or more video segme

Assignees

• Adeia Media Holdings Llc

Inventors

• Hinman John
• Derenzo Ray
• Chan Timothy
• Billings Allen
• Coney Stephen
• Brubeck David

Classifications

• H04N21/47217

  for controlling playback functions for recorded or on-demand content, e.g. using progress bars, mode or play-point indicators or bookmarks (specific graphical features in visual interfaces H04N21/4312) · CPC title

• H04N21/4667

  Processing of monitored end-user data, e.g. trend analysis based on the log file of viewer selections · CPC title

• 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

• 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

• G11B27/22

  Means responsive to presence or absence of recorded information signals · CPC title