Methods and apparatus for identifying media content using temporal signal characteristics

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12568255-B2
Application number	US-202318298018-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 10, 2023
Priority date	Oct 30, 2008
Publication date	Mar 3, 2026
Grant date	Mar 3, 2026

Abstract

Methods and apparatus for identifying media content using temporal signal characteristics are disclosed. An example apparatus includes at least one memory, computer readable instructions, and at least one processor to execute the instructions to identify intervals in a media signal; generate interval sums for respective ones of the intervals, a first interval sum of the interval sums based on a sum of magnitudes of first peaks of the media signal that occur between zero crossings of a first interval of the intervals of the media signal; identify second peaks based on the interval sums; and generate a signature representative of the media signal based on the second peaks.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A computing system
comprising: at least one processor; and memory having stored therein machine-readable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the computing system to perform a set of operations comprising:
defining interval sums for respective intervals of audio information associated with a media signal based on first peaks in the audio information associated with the media signal;
identifying second peaks based on the interval sums;
generating normalized curve features to have a same height and a same width at respective temporal locations, the normalized curve features represented as triangular-shaped peaks, wherein each apex of the triangular-shaped peaks is at each of the respective temporal locations corresponding to the second peaks; and
generating a media signature including the normalized curve features, the media signature to compare with one or more reference signatures to identify the media signal.

2 . The computing system of claim 1 , wherein
operations further include: sending the media signature to a reference signature database for comparison of the media signature to a first one of the one or more reference signatures, the first one of the one or more reference signatures representative of a first reference media signal; and receiving an indication that the media signal corresponds to the first reference media signal based on the comparison.

3 . The computing system of claim 1 , wherein the operations further include setting a value of the media signature to zero at locations other than the temporal locations of the normalized curve features.

4 . The computing system of claim 1 , wherein the operations further include defining a first interval sum of the interval sums based on a sum of magnitudes of the first peaks occurring between a first zero crossing and a second zero crossing of a first interval of the respective intervals.

5 . The computing system of claim 1 , wherein the operations further includes smoothing the interval sums to generate a smoothed curve, and wherein identifying the second peaks based on the interval sums includes identifying the second peaks based on the generated smoothed curve.

6 . The computing system of claim 1 , wherein the media signal includes audio information associated with a broadcast channel, audio information associated with a broadcast program, or audio information associated with a website.

7 . A method comprising:
defining interval sums for respective intervals of audio information associated with a media signal based on first peaks in the audio information associated with the media signal; identifying second peaks based on the interval sums; generating normalized curve features to have a same height and a same width at respective temporal locations, the normalized curve features represented as triangular-shaped peaks, wherein each apex of the triangular-shaped peaks is at each of the respective temporal locations corresponding to the second peaks; and generating a media signature including the normalized curve features, the media signature to compare with one or more reference signatures to identify the media signal.

8 . The method of claim 7 , further comprising:
sending the media signature to a reference signature database for comparison of the media signature to a first one of the one or more reference signatures, the first one of the one or more reference signatures representative of a first reference media signal; and receiving an indication that the media signal corresponds to the first reference media signal based on the comparison.

9 . The method of claim 7 , further comprising setting a value of the media signature to zero at locations other than the temporal locations of the normalized curve features.

10 . The method of claim 7 , further comprising defining a first interval sum of the interval sums based on a sum of magnitudes of the first peaks occurring between a first zero crossing and a second zero crossing of a first interval of the respective intervals.

11 . The method of claim 7 , further comprising smoothing the interval sums to generate a smoothed curve, and wherein identifying the second peaks based on the interval sums includes identifying the second peaks based on the generated smoothed curve.

12 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored therein instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, cause performance of:
defining interval sums for respective intervals of audio information associated with a media signal based on first peaks in the audio information associated with the media signal; identifying second peaks based on the interval sums; generating normalized curve features to have a same height and a same width at respective temporal locations, the normalized curve features represented as triangular-shaped peaks, wherein each apex of the triangular-shaped peaks is at each of the respective temporal locations corresponding to the second peaks; generating a media signature including the normalized curve features, the media signature to compare with one or more reference signatures to identify the media signal.

13 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12 , wherein the instructions further cause, when executed by the at least one processor, performance of:
sending the media signature to a reference signature database for comparison of the media signature to a first one of the one or more reference signatures, the first one of the one or more reference signatures representative of a first reference media signal; and receiving an indication that the media signal corresponds to the first reference media signal based on the comparison.

14 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12 , wherein the instructions further cause, when executed by the at least one processor, performance of setting a value of the media signature to zero at locations other than the temporal locations of the normalized curve features.

15 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12 , wherein the instructions further cause, when executed by the at least one processor, performance of defining a first interval sum of the interval sums based on a sum of magnitudes of the first peaks occurring between a first zero crossing and a second zero crossing of a first interval of the respective intervals.

16 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12 , wherein the instructions further cause, when executed by the at least one processor, performance of smoothing the interval sums to generate a smoothed curve, and wherein identifying the second peaks based on the interval sums includes identifying the second peaks based on the generated smoothed curve.

17 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12 , wherein the media signal includes audio information associated with a broadcast channel, audio information associated with a broadcast program, or audio information associated with a website.

Assignees

• Nielsen Co Us Llc

Inventors

• Lee Morris

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

• H04N21/4394

  involving operations for analysing the audio stream, e.g. detecting features or characteristics in audio streams (arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of audio in broadcast systems H04H60/58) · CPC title

• H04N21/84

  Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors {(systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73)} · CPC title

• H04N21/442

  Monitoring of processes or resources, e.g. detecting the failure of a recording device, monitoring the downstream bandwidth, the number of times a movie has been viewed, the storage space available from the internal hard disk {(arrangements for monitoring broadcast services or broadcast-related services H04H60/29; arrangements for identifying or recognising characteristics with a direct linkage to broadcast information H04H60/35; monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; monitoring in wireless networks H04W24/00)} · CPC title

• G06F2218/14

  by matching peak patterns · CPC title