초록 ▼

An automated method and system for identifying broadcast programs wherein a pattern recognition process is combined with a signalling event which acts as a trigger signal. At least one such trigger, or “cue”signal, occurs with each broadcast of every program which is to be identified; and these sign

An automated method and system for identifying broadcast programs wherein a pattern recognition process is combined with a signalling event which acts as a trigger signal. At least one such trigger, or “cue”signal, occurs with each broadcast of every program which is to be identified; and these signals are used to activate the pattern recognition process which results in program identification. These cue signals can either be artificially inserted into the program signal or they can be events which occur naturally as part of normal broadcast procedures. A segment of each program at a predetermined location with respect to one of these cue signals is sampled and processed according to a feature extraction algorithm to form the program\s reference signature, which is stored in computer memory. In the field, the monitoring equipment detects cue signals broadcast by a monitored station and, upon detection, samples the broadcast program signal at the same predetermined location with respect to the detected cue and uses the same feature extraction process to create a broadcast signature of unknown program identity. By comparing broadcast signatures to reference signatures, a computer identifies the broadcasts of programs whose reference signatures have been stored in memory.

대표청구항 ▼

The method of identifying certain programs transmitted by a broadcasting station, wherein at least one predetermined and readily identifiable signalling event occurs in conjunction with the broadcast of ones of said programs, said method comprising the steps of: generating a digital reference featur

The method of identifying certain programs transmitted by a broadcasting station, wherein at least one predetermined and readily identifiable signalling event occurs in conjunction with the broadcast of ones of said programs, said method comprising the steps of: generating a digital reference feature set from ones of said programs by a transformation of at least one segment of a said program\s analog signal content, said segment beginning at a predetermined time with reference to one of said signalling events and being of a predetermined duration; identifying by a label code the program from which each said reference feature set was derived; storing a set of said reference feature sets and said associated program label codes in a memory; detecting said signalling events within the broadcast signal of said broadcasting station; generating a digital broadcast feature set from ones of said programs broadcast by said broadcasting station, said broadcast feature set being generated by said transformation of at least one segment of the analog broadcast signal content, said segment beginning at a predetermined time with reference to one of said signalling events and being of a predetermined duration; comparing at least one said broadcast feature set to at least one said reference feature set to produce a recognition output when the degree of similarity between a broadcast feature set and a reference feature set meets a predetermined standard, the broadcast program from which said broadcast feature set was derived being identified by the program label code associated with said reference feature set.