Use of Watermarking to Trigger Fingerprint-Related Action

Abstract

Use of watermarking in a media stream as a trigger for carrying out a fingerprint-related action, such as starting to generate fingerprints of the media stream, increasing a rate of generation of fingerprints of the media stream, starting to report fingerprints of the media stream, requesting fingerprints, or engaging in a fingerprint comparison. In an implementation, a media client that is processing the media stream could detect the watermark in the media stream and could responsively carry out or cause to be carried out a fingerprint-related action. Or an entity in a media-distribution path along which the media stream flows to a media client could detect the watermark in the media stream and could responsively carry out or cause to be carried out a fingerprint-related action. Further, the watermark could be inserted into the media stream in the first place based on transport-stream carried metadata, among other possibilities.

1 . A method comprising:
 detecting a watermark in a media stream being processed by a media client; and   responsive to the detecting, using the detected watermark as a basis to trigger a fingerprint-related action.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the method is carried out by the media client. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the method is carried out by an entity in a media-distribution path along which the media stream flows to the media client. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein using the detected watermark as a basis to trigger the fingerprint-related action comprise transmitting out-of-band from the entity to the media client information ascertained based on the watermark, to enable the media client to carry out or cause to be carried out the fingerprint-related action. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the fingerprint-related action comprises a fingerprint automatic-content-recognition (ACR) related action. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the fingerprint-related action comprises the media client starting to generate query fingerprints of the media stream that is being processed by the media client. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the fingerprint-related action comprises the media client increasing a rate of generation of query fingerprints of the media stream that is being processed by the media client. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the fingerprint-related action comprises starting to report fingerprints to another entity. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the fingerprint-related action comprises engaging in signaling to obtain fingerprints for use to perform a fingerprint comparison. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the fingerprint-related action comprises engaging in fingerprint comparison. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the fingerprint-related action facilitates dynamic content revision. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the dynamic content revision comprises dynamic ad replacement. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the watermark is added to the media stream based on transport stream metadata. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising, at an entity in a media-distribution path along which the media stream flows to the media client, adding the watermark to the media stream, wherein adding the watermark to the media stream comprises:
 obtaining, from a transport stream that carries the media stream, metadata that is not watermarked into the media stream; and   encoding the obtained metadata as information in the watermark in the media stream.   
     
     
         15 . A media client comprising:
 a content input interface;   a content presentation interface;   a network communication interface;   a processing unit;   non-transitory data storage; and   program instructions stored in the non-transitory data storage and executable by the processing unit to carry out operations including:
 processing a media stream for presentation, and 
 while processing the media stream for presentation, (i) detecting in the media stream a watermark and (ii) responsive to detecting the watermark, carrying out a fingerprint-related action. 
   
     
     
         16 . The media client of  claim 15 , wherein the fingerprint-related action comprises a fingerprint automatic-content-recognition (ACR) related action. 
     
     
         17 . The media client of  claim 15 , wherein the fingerprint-related action comprises at least one action selected from the group consisting of (i) the media client starting to generate query fingerprints of the media stream that is being processed by the media client, (ii) the media client increasing a rate of generation of query fingerprints of the media stream that is being processed by the media client, (iii) the media client starting to report query fingerprints of the media stream to another entity, (iv) the media client engaging in signaling to obtain reference fingerprints for use to perform fingerprint comparison, and (v) the media client engaging in fingerprint comparison. 
     
     
         18 . The media client of  claim 15 , wherein the fingerprint-related action facilitates dynamic content revision. 
     
     
         19 . The media client of  claim 18 , wherein the dynamic content revision comprises dynamic ad replacement. 
     
     
         20 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium embodying program instructions executable by a processing unit to carry out operations comprising:
 detecting a watermark in a media stream being processed by a media client; and   responsive to the detecting, using the detected watermark as a basis to trigger a fingerprint-related action.