Patent ID: 6100941
Filing Date: 2000-08-08
Classification: G06F,G11B,H04H,H04N,Y10S

Abstract:
A home information appliance for detecting at least a portion of a commercial within a video data stream divided into a plurality of frames comprising:at least one of an average cut frame distance detector, a cut frame distance trend detector, a brand name detector, a cut rate and black frame detector, a frame similarity detector, a character detector, and a static image detector, whereinsaid average cut frame distance detector performs the steps ofa. calculating a quotient which includes a numerator representing the number of frames between a first frame with a cut and a previous frame with a cut and a denominator representing the number of cuts between said previous and first frames,b. comparing said quotient to a cut frame distance threshold, andc. identifying the occurrence of a portion of a commercial based upon said step of comparing;said average cut frame distance trend detector determines a change in the number of cuts in a plurality of frames and detects a portion of a commercial based on said change;said brand name detector performs the steps ofa. processing said data stream through at least one of an audio processor, a video processor, and a closed captioning processor to produce text,b. comparing said text to a bank of product and trade names, andc. identifying a portion of a commercial based upon said step of comparing;said cut rate and black frame detector identifies a portion of a commercial based on whether a series of black frames has occurred within a cut rate and black frame time period before an analyzed cut, said analyzed cut occurring within a sequence of cuts, said sequence occurring within a cut rate time period;said frame similarity detector determines whether a present frame is similar to a previous frame and detects a portion of a commercial when a frame within a time period is similar to the present frame;said character detector performs the steps ofa. finding letters within an analyzed frame of said frames,b. creating a box around said letters,c. determining dimensions of said box,d. determining a location of said box within said analyzed frame,e. analyzing said dimensions and said location of said analyzed frame with subsequent analyzed frames, andf. detecting a portion of a commercial based upon said step of analyzing; andsaid static image detector detects a portion of a commercial when a number of static frames has occurred within a time period.