Verance Corporation

Other

Patrick George Downes

Rade Petrovic

Joseph M Winograd

Jian Zhao

A method for embedding video watermarks. Areas of poor visual quality in a video content having embedded watermarks ar determined. The watermark symbols replace pixels in the video content with pixels in which the luma values are modulated such the luma value for a 0 bit renders as black and the luma value for a 1 bit renders a shade of gray. The luma value for the 1 bit level is reduced in those areas determined to have poor visual quality. Areas of poor visual quality may be determined by analyzing the luma values of pixels of the video content immediately adjacent to and below a particular watermark symbol to derive an adjacent brightness parameter that represents the perceptual brightness of the surrounding video content. The reduction of the luma value may be achieved by setting the 1 bit luma for a particular watermark symbol to be perceptually less bright than the adjacent brightness parameter.

Psycho-visual-model based video watermark gain adaptation

A watermark-based dynamic ad insertion (DAI) technique for presenting different users of content different advertisements based on the user's profile for content viewed on broadcast channels or in multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD) channels. A number of solutions issues with watermark-based DAI are presented. Interoperability is addressed by providing a multiplexing technique so that the DAI watermarks do not interfere with other watermarks, such as ATSC 3.0 watermarks. Reliability is addressed by providing a matched filtering technique. Security is addressed by providing a mutual authentication technique.

Watermark-based dynamic ad insertion

A system and method for controlling a media player for replacement content, such as dynamic ad insertion. The system tracks video watermarks from a content stream, where the input content timeline is being modified by a user exercising the transport controls of a digital video recorder (DVR). A Detector Engine receives decoded video frames and extracts a time-offset field, a VP1 payload, and a Cyclic Redundance Check (CRC) field in each video frame. A Content Timeline Tracker monitors and analyzes the output of the Detector Engine to produce a piecewise linear approximation of the content timeline, wherein playback rate changes by a user in an upstream device can be tracked. This enables the playback of auxiliary content which is synchronized to a watermark timeline recovered from the received content in cases where the recovered timeline has a non-linear mapping to real time. When the estimated speed is changing due to user-controlled trick play of recorded content, estimated speed deviates from the user intended speed profile because of imperfect playback of the media player. The system includes additional filtering of estimated speed to produce a Boolean updated speed which is asserted sparsely at estimated control segment endpoints in an attempt to delineate constant slope (constant speed) control segments.

System and method for tracking content timeline in the presence of playback rate changes

Methods, systems, devices and computer program products are provided to facilitate enhanced use and interaction with multimedia content that is based on a time-varying evaluation of the multimedia content. While a content is being presented on a first device, timing information identifying temporal locations of segments of the content within a content timeline are extracted. While the content is still being presented, a feedback received from the user is associated with the content using the timing information and transmitted to a database. The user then receives a response corresponding to feedback provided by a plurality of consumers of the multimedia content on a segment-by-segment basis.

Time varying evaluation of multimedia content

Methods, devices, systems and computer program products improve the detection of watermarks that are embedded in a host content by providing information indicative of a ranking of watermark payloads to watermark extractors. A watermark extractor device obtains information indicative of a ranking of a plurality of watermark payload values, where such information designates each watermark payload value within a first subset of the plurality of watermark payload values as having an associated rank value. Based at least in-part on the information indicative of the ranking, the watermark extractor device is configured to prioritize resource allocation for extraction of payload values that are designated as belonging to the first subset over payload values that are not designated as belonging to the first subset. The watermark extractor then extracts a payload value, designated as belonging to the first subset, from one or more watermarks embedded in the host content.

Watermark extractor enhancements based on payload ranking

Methods, systems, devices and computer program products are provided to facilitate enhanced use and interaction with multimedia content that is based on a time-varying evaluation of the multimedia content. While a content is being presented on a first device, timing information identifying temporal locations of content segments are extracted and transmitted to a database along with a user's evaluation feedback of the multimedia content. The user then receives a response corresponding to feedback provided by a plurality of consumers of the multimedia content on a segment-by-segment basis.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, a control unit which is freely moveable in space is equipped with three sensors to measure motion (e.g. velocity, acceleration, or the time derivative of acceleration) along three substantially orthogonal axes. The sensors may be meter movements configured to output motion signals indicative of their movement in free space, which signals are amplified, digitized, processed by a microprocessor to detect relative minima and maxima. Processed motion signals are converted to standard MIDI control signals for controlling an electronic musical instrument.

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San Diego, CA, United States of America

Patrick George Downes