Pulse or digital communications – Bandwidth reduction or expansion – Television or motion video signal
Reexamination Certificate
1999-11-23
2002-10-01
Kelley, Chris (Department: 2613)
Pulse or digital communications
Bandwidth reduction or expansion
Television or motion video signal
Reexamination Certificate
active
06459735
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing device and method, and an information supply medium, and particularly to an information processing device and method and an information supply medium for detecting commercials contained in a television broadcast.
2. Description of the Related Art
When a recorded television broadcast is reproduced, in order to satisfy users' needs for continuously watching only a program, there has been provided a video recorder (e.g., a video cassette recorder or “VCR”) having a so-called commercial cut function which fast feeds a commercial advertisement (hereinafter referred to as a “commercial” or a “CM”).
A commercial detection algorithm used in such a video recorder is based on the following characteristics which are unique to commercials or characteristic of a number of commercials. That is, if the following characteristics are confirmed, the portion thus confirmed is detected as a commercial: a quiet section of 0.1 to 2.0 seconds exists at the start and end times of each commercial; a scene change point of an image exists at each quiet section; the duration of each commercial is equal to an integral multiple of 15 seconds; and (for commercials broadcast outside of the United States, e.g., in Japan) the sound multiplex mode changes from a monaural mode for programs to a stereo mode for commercials.
In television broadcast systems of America and Europe, commercials may be detected on the basis of a black frame or blue frame existing between a program and a commercial.
Therefore, according to a conventional commercial detection algorithm, any commercial in which at least one of the above characteristics is not present, such as a Japanese commercial having a monaural sound multiplex mode, cannot be detected.
Further, according to the conventional commercial detection algorithm, if the above characteristics are contained in a part of a program, that portion of the program is erroneously detected as a commercial.
If the characteristics of commercials which have been used in the conventional algorithm were altered or abolished (for example, if the duration of commercials were changed to an integral multiple of 14 seconds or if inserting of the black frame or blue frame were abolished in America or Europe), no commercial would be detected.
Furthermore, according to the detection method of the quiet section in the conventional commercial detection algorithm, the average level of sound over a section is calculated, and if the average level thus calculated is below a predetermined threshold value, the section concerned is detected as a quiet section. Therefore, the detection precision for the quiet section is different between a case of bad reception of a television broadcast (e.g., if the signal to noise ratio (“S/N”) of sound signals is low due to a weak electric field) and a case where the electric field is not weak, so that no commercial can be reliably detected.
The measurement of the time required for a commercial in the conventional commercial detection algorithm is performed by counting the number of frames, while the number of frames per second is set to about 30 frames. However, since an error of several frames often occurs in the actual broadcast, a margin of error is provided to the threshold value to identify the needed time in connection with the error. Accordingly, erroneous detection or non-detection of commercials occurs due to the margin of error.
Further, when a commercial spot of a TV station is broadcast between a commercial and a program for a short time, e.g., for 5 seconds, the spot is something like a commercial from the perspective of viewers. However, the spot is not detected because it does not have the foregoing characteristics of commercials.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the invention to provide a method, apparatus and computer program for correctly detecting commercials contained in television broadcasts.
It is a further object of the present invention to reduce or eliminate the need to view commercials when reproducing previously recorded television broadcasts.
It is a feature of the present invention to stop recording of a television broadcast when a commercial is detected.
It is an additional feature of the present invention to instead index commercials when recording a television broadcast in order to permit the high speed fast forwarding through such commercials, yet preserve the ability to view such commercials according to the wishes of a viewer.
It is an advantage of the present invention to reduce the amount of time a viewer must spend in viewing a desired television program.
It is a further advantage of the present invention to reduce the amount of recording media storage space necessary to record a desired television program, by not recording commercials interspersed with the desired television program.
It is yet another advantage of the present invention to allow a viewer to index commercials to permit the viewing of such commercials when desired by the viewer.
According to one aspect of the invention, there is provided an apparatus for processing a television signal which includes: means for receiving a television signal; means for detecting a commercial candidate section in the television signal; means for determining characteristics of the commercial candidate section; and means for judging whether or not the commercial candidate section is a commercial, based on the characteristics detected by the determining means.
According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided an apparatus for processing a television signal which includes: means for receiving a television signal; means for detecting a commercial candidate section in the television signal; means for determining a frequency of scene changes in the commercial candidate section and for increasing a commercial characteristic value if the frequency of scene changes is above a predetermined level; means for determining whether or not the audio signal in the commercial candidate section has a periodicity, for calculating a level of periodicity detected and for increasing a commercial characteristic value if the calculated periodicity is above a predetermined level; means for determining a level of continuity of the periodicity of the audio signal in the commercial candidate section and for increasing a commercial characteristic value if the continuity is above a predetermined level; means for determining a level of repetition of the video signal in the commercial candidate section and for increasing a commercial characteristic value if the repetition is above a predetermined level; means for detecting a telop in the video signal of the commercial candidate section and for increasing a commercial characteristic value if a telop is detected; means for detecting a character in the video signal of the commercial candidate section and for increasing a commercial characteristic value if a character is detected; means for determining the quietness rate of the commercial candidate section and for increasing a commercial characteristic value if the quietness rate is below a predetermined level; and means for judging whether or not the commercial candidate section is a commercial, based on the commercial characteristic value resulting from the operations of the frequency determining means, the periodicity determining means, the continuity determining means, the repetition determining means, the telop determining means, the character determining means and the quietness rate determining means.
According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided an apparatus for processing a television signal which includes: means for receiving the television signal; means for determining a quiet threshold value from the television signal; means for making a comparison of the audio signal and the quiet threshold value; and means for judging whether or not a portion of the television signal is a commercial candidate section according to the comparison.
According to another aspe
Miyata Katsunari
Ohta Masashi
Suito Taro
Kelley Chris
Oblon & Spivak, McClelland, Maier & Neustadt P.C.
Sony Corporation
Vo Tung T.
LandOfFree
Information processing apparatus, information processing... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Information processing apparatus, information processing..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Information processing apparatus, information processing... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2943985