Gracenote, Inc.

Roku, Inc.

Other

The Nielsen Comapny (us), LLC

Aneesh Vartakavi

Markus Kurt Cremer

Jeffrey William Scott

Peter C DiMaria

Robert Coover

Casper Lützhøft Christensen

Cameron Aubrey Summers

Michael Gubman

Andreas Schmidt

Gregoire Tronel

Shashank C Merchant

Phillip Popp

Amanmeet Garg

Zafar Rafii

Todd J Hodges

Lakshika Balasuriya

Sharmishtha Gupta

Joseph P Renner

Joshua Ernest Morris

Chin-Ting Ko

Konstantinos Antonio Dimitriou

Jason Timothy Cramer

Carmen Yaiza Rancel Gil

Anjana Gopakumar

Arthur Findelair

In one aspect, an example method includes (i) obtaining fingerprint repetition data for a portion of video content, with the fingerprint repetition data including a list of other portions of video content matching the portion of video content and respective reference identifiers for the other portions of video content; (ii) identifying the portion of video content as a program segment rather than an advertisement segment based at least on a number of unique reference identifiers within the list of other portions of video content relative to a total number of reference identifiers within the list of other portions of video content; (iii) determining that the portion of video content corresponds to a program specified in an electronic program guide using a time stamp of the portion of video content; and (iv) storing an indication of the portion of video content in a data file for the program.

Identifying and labeling segments within video content

A clustering machine can cluster descriptive vectors in a balanced manner. The clustering machine calculates distances between pairs of descriptive vectors and generates clusters of vectors arranged in a hierarchy. The clustering machine determines centroid vectors of the clusters, such that each cluster is represented by its corresponding centroid vector. The clustering machine calculates a sum of inter-cluster vector distances between pairs of centroid vectors, as well as a sum of intra-cluster vector distances between pairs of vectors in the clusters. The clustering machine calculates multiple scores of the hierarchy by varying a scalar and calculating a separate score for each scalar. The calculation of each score is based on the two sums previously calculated for the hierarchy. The clustering machine may select or otherwise identify a balanced subset of the hierarchy by finding an extremum in the calculated scores.

Selecting balanced clusters of descriptive vectors

An example method may include receiving, at a computing device, a digital image associated with a particular media content program, the digital image containing one or more faces of particular people associated with the particular media content program. A computer-implemented automated face recognition program may be applied to the digital image to recognize, based on at least one feature vector from a prior-determined set of feature vectors, one or more of the particular people in the digital image, together with respective geometric coordinates for each of the one or more detected faces. At least a subset of the prior-determined set of feature vectors may be associated with a respective one of the particular people. The digital image together may be stored in non-transitory computer-readable memory, together with information assigning respective identities of the recognized particular people, and associating with each respective assigned identity geometric coordinates in the digital image.

Obtaining artist imagery from video content using facial recognition

Example systems and methods of selection of video frames using a machine learning (ML) predictor program are disclosed. The ML predictor program may generate predicted cropping boundaries for any given input image. Training raw images associated with respective sets of training master images indicative of cropping characteristics for the training raw image may be input to the ML predictor, and the ML predictor program trained to predict cropping boundaries for raw image based on expected cropping boundaries associated training master images. At runtime, the trained ML predictor program may be applied to a sequence of video image frames to determine for each respective video image frame a respective score corresponding to a highest statistical confidence associated with one or more subsets of cropping boundaries predicted for the respective video image frame. Information indicative of the respective video image frame having the highest score may be stored or recorded.

Selection of video frames using a machine learning predictor

A method and system for computer-based generation of podcast metadata, to facilitate operations such as searching for and recommending podcasts based on the generated metadata. In an example method, a computing system obtains a text representation of a podcast episode and obtains person data defining a list of person names such as celebrity names. The computing system then correlates the person data with the text representation, to find a match between a listed person name a text string in the text representation. Further, the computing system predicts a named-entity span in the text representation and determines that the predicted named-entity span matches a location of the text string in the text representation of the podcast episode, and based on this determination, the computing system generates and outputs metadata that associates the person name with the podcast episode.

Method and system for generating podcast metadata to facilitate searching and recommendation

In one aspect, a method includes receiving podcast content, generating a transcript of at least a portion of the podcast content, and parsing the podcast content to (i) identify audio segments within the podcast content, (ii) determine classifications for the audio segments, (iii) identify audio segment offsets, and (iv) identify sentence offsets. The method also includes based on the audio segments, the classifications, the audio segment offsets, and the sentence offsets, dividing the generated transcript into text sentences and, from among the text sentences of the divided transcript, selecting a group of text sentences for use in generating an audio summary of the podcast content. The method also includes based on timestamps at which the group of text sentences begin in the podcast content, combining portions of audio in the podcast content that correspond to the group of text sentences to generate an audio file representing the audio summary.

System and method for multi-modal podcast summarization

Example systems and methods may selection of video frames using a machine learning (ML) predictor program are disclosed. The ML predictor program may generate predicted cropping boundaries for any given input image. Training raw images associated with respective sets of training master images indicative of cropping characteristics for the training raw image may be input to the ML predictor, and the ML predictor program trained to predict cropping boundaries for raw image based on expected cropping boundaries associated training master images. At runtime, the trained ML predictor program may be applied to runtime raw images in order to generate respective sets of runtime cropping boundaries corresponding to different cropped versions of the runtime raw image. The runtime raw images may be stored with information indicative of the respective sets of runtime boundaries.

Automated cropping of images using a machine learning predictor

In one aspect, an example method includes (i) determining, by a computing system, a mean image of a set of frames of video content; (ii) extracting, by the computing system, a reference template of static content from the mean image; (iii) identifying, by the computing system, the extracted reference template of static content in a frame of the set of frames of the video content; (iv) labeling a segment within the video content as either a program segment or an advertisement segment based on the identifying of the extracted reference template of static content in the frame of the video content; and (v) generating data identifying the labeled segment.

System and method to identify programs and commercials in video content via unsupervised static content identification

Methods and systems for disambiguating musical artist names are disclosed. Musical-artist-release records (MARRs) may be input to a multi-modal artificial neural network (ANN). Each MARR may be associated with a musical release of an artist, and may include a release ID and an artist ID, and release data in categories including music media content and metadata categories including sub-definitive musician name of the artist and release subcategories. All n-tuples of MARRs may be formed, and for each n-tuple, the ANN may be applied concurrently to each MARR to generate a release feature vector (RFV) that includes a set of sub-feature vectors, each characterizing a different category of release data. For each n-tuple, the ANN may be trained to cluster in a multi-dimensional RFV space RFVs of the same artist ID, and to separate RFVs of different artist IDs. The MARRs and their RFVs may be stored in a release database.

Music release disambiguation using multi-modal neural networks

Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture are disclosed to adjust device control information. The example apparatus comprises a light drive waveform generator to obtain metadata corresponding to media and generate device control information based on the metadata, the device control information to inform a lighting device to enable consecutive light pulses; an effect engine to apply an attack parameter and a decay parameter to consecutive light pulses corresponding to the device control information, the attack parameter and the decay parameter based on the metadata to affect a shape of the consecutive light pulses; and a color timeline generator to generate color information based on the metadata, the color information to inform the lighting device to change a color state.

Methods and apparatus to control light pulsing effects based on media content

A machine is configured to identify a media file that, when played to a user, is likely to modify an emotional or physical state of the user to or towards a target emotional or physical state. The machine accesses play counts that quantify playbacks of media files for the user. The playbacks may be locally performed or detected by the machine from ambient sound. The machine accesses arousal scores of the media files and determines a distribution of the play counts over the arousal scores. The machine uses one or more relative maxima in the distribution in selecting a target arousal score for the user based on contextual data that describes an activity of the user. The machine selects one or more media files based on the target arousal score. The machine may then cause the selected media file to be played to the user.

Machine-led mood change

In one aspect, an example method for generating a candidate image for use as backdrop imagery for a graphical user interface is disclosed. The method includes receiving a raw image and determining an edge image from the raw image using edge detection. The method also includes identifying a candidate region of interest (ROI) in the raw image based on the candidate ROI enclosing a portion of the edge image having edge densities exceeding a threshold edge density. The method also includes manipulating the raw image relative to a backdrop imagery canvas for a graphical user interface based on a location of the candidate ROI within the raw image. The method also includes generating, based on the manipulating, a set of candidate backdrop images in which at least a portion of the candidate ROI occupies a preselected area of the backdrop imagery canvas, and storing the set of candidate backdrop images.

Methods and systems for automatically generating backdrop imagery for a graphical user interface

Apparatus, systems, articles of manufacture, and methods for volume adjustment are disclosed herein. An example method includes collecting data corresponding to a volume of an audio signal as the audio signal is output through a device, when an average volume of the audio signal does not satisfy a volume threshold for a specified timespan, determining a difference between the average volume and a desired volume, and applying a gain to the audio signal to adjust the volume of the audio signal to the desired volume, the gain determined based on the difference between the average volume and the desired volume.

Methods and apparatus for volume adjustment

In one aspect, an example method includes (i) extracting a sequence of audio features from a portion of a sequence of media content; (ii) extracting a sequence of video features from the portion of the sequence of media content; (iii) providing the sequence of audio features and the sequence of video features as an input to a transition detector neural network that is configured to classify whether or not a given input includes a transition between different content segments; (iv) obtaining from the transition detector neural network classification data corresponding to the input; (v) determining that the classification data is indicative of a transition between different content segments; and (vi) based on determining that the classification data is indicative of a transition between different content segments, outputting transition data indicating that the portion of the sequence of media content includes a transition between different content segments.

Transition detector neural network

In one aspect, an example method includes (i) obtaining fingerprint repetition data for a portion of video content, with the fingerprint repetition data including a list of other portions of video content matching the portion of video content and respective reference identifiers for the other portions of video content; (ii) identifying the portion of video content as a program segment rather than an advertisement segment based at least on a number of unique reference identifiers within the list of other portions of video content relative to a total number of reference identifiers within the list of other portions of video content; (iii) determining that the portion of video content corresponds to a program specified in an electronic program guide using a timestamp of the portion of video content; and (iv) storing an indication of the portion of video content in a data file for the program.

Growing community of inventors

Emeryville, CA, United States of America

Aneesh Vartakavi