Systems and Methods for Performing Semantic Analysis of Media Objects

Abstract

System and method for identification of ownership to media objects through analysis of semantic information in the media objects are disclosed. Semantic information is a term that can be used to describe aspects of the content of a media object that are apparent to a human viewing or listening to the content. In many embodiments, the media object is analyzed for semantic information that are indicative of media ownership such as, but not limited to, station identification logos, franchise logos (e.g., the title credits of a popular television series), theme songs, the distinctive voice of a news presenter, the face and/or voice of an actor and/or other characteristics of the media object are used as a basis for determining entities associated with the media object. One embodiment of the invention includes extracting semantic information from a specified media object, matching said semantic information of the specified media object against known semantic information of known media objects, and taking action based on the result of the comparison.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method of transmitting data in digital video content based on automatic recognition of a signaling image embedded within the video content that varies according to input data, the method comprising:
 extracting the signaling image from the video content by combining several frames of video content;   recognizing said signaling image extracted from the video content;   retrieving the usage rights associated with the recognized signaling image; and   restricting access to the digital video content in accordance with the retrieved usage rights.   
     
     
         2 . A method of  claim 1  wherein the signaling image embedded within the content is invisible. 
     
     
         3 . A method of  claim 1  wherein the signaling image embedded within the content is visible. 
     
     
         4 . A method of  claim 1  wherein the data transmitted within the image conveys usage information. 
     
     
         5 . A method for restricting access to digital video content based on recognition of a TV station logo embedded within the video content that varies according to the video usage rights, the method comprising:
 extracting the TV station logo from the video content by combining several frames of video content;   identifying the TV station logo by determining the TV station logo from known TV station logos that most closely matches said TV station logo extracted from the video content;   retrieving the usage rights associated with the identified TV station logo; and   restricting access to the digital video content in accordance with the retrieved usage rights.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein said limitation of access includes combination of advertisement with said video content. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein said TV station logo is visibly embedded within the video content. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein said TV station logo is invisibly embedded within the video content. 
     
     
         9 . A method for determining transformations applied to digital video content based on automatic recognition of a TV station logo within the video content, the method comprising:
 extracting the TV station logo from the video content;   matching said TV station logo of the specified video content against known TV station logos;   determining the TV station logo from known TV station logos that most closely matches said TV station logo;   using known properties of the known TV station logo to determine the transformation of the video content.   
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein said TV station logo is visible within the video content. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein said TV station logo is invisibly embedded within the video content. 
     
     
         12 . A method of  claim 9 , wherein the determined transformation is used to derive the geometric transformation of the video content. 
     
     
         13 . A method of  claim 9 , wherein the determined transformation is used to derive the geometric transformations to an embedded invisible watermark. 
     
     
         14 . A method for restricting access to a media object based on automatic recognition of human recognizable semantic properties evident during playback of the media object, the method comprising:
 extracting at least one semantic property from a specified media object;   matching said at least one semantic property of the specified media object against known semantic properties of known media objects;   comparing matches between said at least one semantic property and known semantic properties to a threshold value; and   determining allowed actions that can be performed with respect to the media object based upon the result of the comparison;   restricting access to the media object in accordance with the allowed actions.   
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein said located media objects are present at least one of: a web site, an file transport protocol site, a peer to peer network, a disc drive, a hard drive, a computer, a compact disc, and a digital video disc. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the known semantic properties are derived from previously identified semantic properties. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the semantic property is identification of a TV station logo on at least one frame of a video track within the media object. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the semantic information is the result of optical character recognition on at least one frame of a video track within the media object. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the semantic property is the result of performing speaker recognition on an audio track within the media object. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the semantic property is the result of performing automated speech recognition on an audio track within the media object.