Motion video signal processing for recording or reproducing – Local trick play processing – With randomly accessible medium
Reexamination Certificate
1999-11-30
2002-06-11
Tran, Thai (Department: 2615)
Motion video signal processing for recording or reproducing
Local trick play processing
With randomly accessible medium
C348S460000, C348S901000, C358S908000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06404977
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to television signal processing systems and in particular to television signal processing systems for detecting selected segments of a television signal such as commercial advertisement segments.
2. Description of Related Art
It has long been a desire of many television viewers to have a system which automatically detects selected segments of a television signal such as commercial advertisements or other unwanted broadcast segments in real-time during a television broadcast for the purposes of, for example, muting the audio portion of the television broadcast during the unwanted broadcast material or controlling a video cassette recorder (VCR) to skip the unwanted broadcast material during recording of the television broadcast. Although a wide variety of techniques have been developed for detecting selected segments of television signals, heretofore there have been no sufficiently effective and economical systems that automatically operate in real-time for muting the television signal during the selected segments, for controlling a VCR to pause while recording the television signal during the selected segments, or for similar purposes.
Examples of broadcast segment detection systems include systems for detecting commercial advertisements during the playback of a television program on a VCR for the purpose of controlling the VCR to skip or scan over the commercial advertisements during playback such that a viewer may watch the recorded television program without significant commercial advertisement interruptions. One particularly effective system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,333,091 entitled “Method and Apparatus for Controlling a Videotape Player to Automatically Scan Past Recorded Commercial Messages” and sold under the trademark “Commercial Advance.” With the system of U.S. Pat. No. 5,333,091, an automatic editing device is coupled between a conventional VCR and a conventional television set. As a broadcast program is recorded on a videotape by the VCR, the editing device detects and records the timing and duration of selected events, such as black frames combined with low audio, that separate segments of the broadcast and creates a time-based map of the selected events. After the recording is completed, the editing device analyzes the time-based map and determines therefrom which segments are commercial advertisement segments and which are program segments. The editing device then records control signals on the videotape prior to and following the commercial advertisement segments. Upon playback, the control signals control the VCR to fast-scan over the commercial advertisement segments so that the recorded broadcast can be viewed substantially without interruption. Related techniques are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,455,630 and in PCT application PCT/US94/00223 published as WO 94/16442.
Although the systems of U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,333,091 and 5,455,630 and PCT application PCT/US94/00223 are very effective in skipping over commercial advertisements and other unwanted broadcast material during the playback of a recorded broadcast program on a videotape, the systems do not operate in real-time during a received broadcast.
Other examples of broadcast segment detection systems include systems for detecting commercial advertisements during the recording of a television program on a VCR for the purposes of controlling the VCR to skip the commercial advertisements during recording such that a viewer may later watch the recorded television program without any commercial advertisement interruptions whatsoever. An example is a system described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,602,297 entitled “System for Editing Commercial Messages from Recorded Television Broadcasts” which stores and delays the output of a received broadcast signal to a VCR until it can determine whether the delayed portion of the broadcast signal includes commercial advertisements. To this end, the system detects commercial advertisements or groups of commercial advertisements within the delayed portion by detecting amplitude drops in the broadcast signal and determining whether time intervals between the amplitude drops correspond to normal durations of commercial advertisements or groups of commercial advertisements. The system then outputs only those portions of the delayed signal to the VCR that do not correspond to commercial advertisements of groups of commercial advertisements. Hence, the broadcast signal is recorded without commercial advertisements for future playback. However, the system does not operate in real-time to detect commercial advertisements within a received broadcast signal. Rather the system instead requires that the received broadcast signal be temporarily stored and delayed. Commercial advertisements may each be one minute or perhaps more in length thereby requiring a significant amount of storage for temporarily storing portions of the broadcast signal and thereby requiring a system which is not sufficiently economical for most purposes.
Other examples of systems for detecting commercial advertisements during the recording of a television program are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,750,052 entitled “Apparatus and Method for Automatically Deleting Selected Program Intervals from Recorded Television Broadcasts” and U.S. Pat. No. 4,782,401 entitled “Editing Method and Apparatus for Commercials During Video Recording”, both of which also operate to detect commercial advertisements based upon intervals occurring between amplitude drops or other fades in a received broadcast signal. Rather than storing and deleting the received signals prior to output to a VCR, however, the systems of U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,750,052 and 4,782,401 record the signals on a videotape using a VCR and control the VCR to rewind at the end of each commercial advertisement or group of advertisements such that further program signals are recorded over the commercial advertisements. As with the previously described system, the systems of U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,750,052 and 4,782,401 do not operate in real-time and are not sufficiently economical for most purposes.
Moreover, none of the aforementioned systems for detecting broadcast segments during the recording of a television program operate in real-time for the purpose of, for example, muting the audio during commercial advertisements or other broadcast segments.
Still other examples of broadcast segment detection systems include systems for detecting commercial advertisements in broadcast television signals for the purposes of verifying that selected commercial advertisements are being broadcast on the proper days and at the proper times. Examples include U.S. Pat. No. 5,504,518 entitled “Method and System for Recognition of Broadcast Segments” wherein stored digitized segments of broadcast signals are processed by an expert system to determine whether any particular segment corresponds to a selected segment of interest, such as a selected commercial advertisement. Segments that cannot be identified by the expert system, such as new or otherwise unknown segments, are routed to a human operator for verifying that the segment represents a commercial advertisement rather than a portion of a television program. Selected segment information such as the date and time of broadcast of the segments of interest are recorded and tabulated in a report for use by, for example, broadcast advertisers for verifying that the selected segments *were broadcast on the proper dates and at the proper times. As part of its analysis of the segments, the expert system compares broadcast signatures with a database of signatures. A variety of techniques are described for defining and detecting signatures. The expert system also considers various cues including the lengths and relative groupings of segments and the intervals therebetween. No real-time analysis appears to be performed by the expert system or by the human operator.
Another system for commercial advertisement broadcast verification is described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No.
LandOfFree
METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONTROLLING A VIDEOTAPE RECORDER IN... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONTROLLING A VIDEOTAPE RECORDER IN..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONTROLLING A VIDEOTAPE RECORDER IN... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2953499