Patent ID: 8780209

Claim:
A method of comparing media signals comprising: receiving a first input media signal and a second input media signal; extracting a first characteristic feature from the first input media signal to generate a first feature signal; sampling the first feature signal to produce a first sampled feature signal; extracting a second characteristic feature from the second input media signal to generate a second feature signal; sampling the second feature signal to produce a second sampled feature signal; cross-correlating the first and second sampled feature signals to generate a cross-correlation signal; providing a match confidence signal based on the cross-correlation signal, wherein the match confidence signal has a value between a high match value and a low match value and wherein the match confidence signal is an estimate of the likelihood that that the first input media signal corresponds to the second input media signal; analyzing the cross-correlation signal to identify a current peak value within the cross-correlation signal by comparing the cross-correlation signal to a predetermined matching peak threshold; and modifying the match confidence signal based on the comparison, wherein if the current peak value exceeding the matching peak threshold is identified, the match confidence signal is modified to be closer to the high match value, and if the current peak value exceeding the matching peak threshold is not identified, the match confidence signal is modified to be closer to the low match value.