US20100145488A1 - Dynamic transrating based on audio analysis of multimedia content - Google Patents

Abstract

Exemplary techniques for modifying multimedia data based on content are disclosed. One technique comprises determining whether a first portion of multimedia content of multimedia data has a first content characteristic and performing one or more content actions associated with the first content characteristic when the first portion of the multimedia content is determined to have the first content characteristic, wherein the one or more content actions modify a first portion of the multimedia data associated with the first portion of the multimedia content.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
• The present application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/237,435 (Attorney Docket No. 1459-VIXS084), entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DYNAMIC TRANSRATING BASED ON CONTENT” and filed on Sep. 28, 2005, the entirety of which is incorporated by reference herein.
• The present application is related to co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______ (Attorney Docket No. 1459-VIXS084C3), entitled “DYNAMIC TRANSRATING BASED ON OPTICAL CHARACTER RECOGNITION ANALYSIS OF MULTIMEDIA CONTENT” and filed on even date herewith.
• The present application is related to co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/522,141 (Attorney Docket No. 1459-VIXS084C), entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR TRANSRATING BASED ON MULTIMEDIA PROGRAM TYPE” and filed on Sep. 15, 2006.
FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE
• The present disclosure relates generally to data processing and more particularly to processing multimedia information.
BACKGROUND
• Current trends in multimedia content distribution are directed to the storage of multimedia content for subsequent access or distribution. Presently, many households utilize personal video recorders (PVRs), also referred to as digital video recorders (DVRs) to store multimedia content received from a terrestrial broadcast as digital data. This data then may be accessed at a later date for display or transmission to another device, such as a cell phone or a portable video player. Current multimedia storage solutions face a choice of either content quality or storage space. As such, these conventional solutions either elect to indiscriminately reduce content quality content, thereby reducing the space required to store the data, or they elect to retain content quality, thereby limiting the amount of data that may be stored in a cost-effective manner. Accordingly, an improved technique for processing multimedia data for storage or distribution would be advantageous.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
• The purpose and advantages of the present disclosure will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art from the following detailed description in conjunction with the appended drawings in which like reference characters are used to indicate like elements, and in which:
• FIGS. 1 and 2 are block diagrams illustrating exemplary multimedia processing systems in accordance with at least one embodiment of the present disclosure.
• FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary implementation of a transrating system in accordance with at least one embodiment of the present disclosure.
• FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary method for dynamic transrating in accordance with at least one embodiment of the present disclosure.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DISCLOSURE
• The following description is intended to convey a thorough understanding of the present disclosure by providing a number of specific embodiments and details involving modifying multimedia content based on one or more rule sets associated with content characteristics. It is understood, however, that the present disclosure is not limited to these specific embodiments and details, which are exemplary only. It is further understood that one possessing ordinary skill in the art, in light of known systems and methods, would appreciate the use of the disclosure for its intended purposes and benefits in any number of alternative embodiments, depending upon specific design and other needs.
• FIGS. 1-4 illustrate exemplary techniques for modifying multimedia content based on rule sets associated with one or more content characteristics. In at least one embodiment, multimedia data representing, for example, a program is received. Based on program information associated with the multimedia data, a rule template is identified. The rule template includes one or more rules, each rule being represented by, for example, a content characteristic and one or more content actions associated with the content characteristic. The rule template then is applied to the multimedia data so as to modify the multimedia data. In one embodiment, the rule template is applied by processing the multimedia data using some or all of the applicable rules of the rule template, where the multimedia content of the multimedia data is analyzed to determine if the content characteristics of one or more rules are present, and if so, one or more of the content actions associated with the identified content characteristics may be performed.
• Referring toFIG. 1, an exemplarymultimedia processing system100 is illustrated in accordance with at least one embodiment of the present disclosure. As exemplary depicted, thesystem100 can include amultimedia processing device102, acontent provider104 and one ormore storage devices106. Themultimedia processing device102, in one embodiment, includes atransrater110 and a rules template database. Implementations of themultimedia processing device102 may include, for example, a set top box, a personal versatile recorder (PVR), a television tuner card, a video card, and the like. Thecontent provider104 can include, for example, a satellite video feed, a cable television head in, a digital versatile disk (DVD) drive, and the like. Thestorage device106 may include, for example, memory, a hard disc, a DVD drive, and the like.
• In operation, themultimedia processing device102 receivesmultimedia data108 from thecontent provider104, where the multimedia data may be provide in, for example, an MPEG data stream format. Program information114 associated with themultimedia data108 also can be provided with themultimedia data108 or as a separate transmission. The program information114 provides an indication or description of the programmatic details of themultimedia data108. To illustrate, themultimedia data108 may represent, for example, a particular football game and the program information114 therefore can identify the multimedia data generally as a sports program, more particularly as a football program, and more specifically as, for example, a NFL® football program for a particular television network (e.g., Monday Night Football®). The program information114 can include electronic program guide (EPG) information or information transmitted as closed captioning information during vertical blanking intervals.
• Based on the program information114, thetransrater110 identifies a particular rules template from therules template database112 that is applicable to the program type of the multimedia data114. Using the example provided above, the rules template selected may be a rules template that is applicable to sports programs in general, a rules template that is applicable to football games, or a rules template that is applicable to the particular type of football game (e.g., a college football game or a football game program provided by a particular television network). After identifying the appropriate rules template, thetransrater110 analyzes one or more portions of the content of themultimedia data108 to determine if one or more content characteristics identified by the rules of the rules template are present in an analyzed portion. To illustrate, the rules template can include a rule that provides that if the analyzed content portion includes a change in average audio volume that is greater than a given threshold (one example of a content characteristic), then the bit rate of the content portion is reduced by a provided amount (one example of a content action). This rule may be utilized, for example, to identify the presence of a commercial (which often is preceded by a change in volume), and if so present, the bit rate of the multimedia data representing the commercial content may be reduced so as to reduce the overall amount of multimedia data without materially affecting the multimedia content of the program that a viewer is likely to care about (i.e., non-commercial content).
• If the content characteristic of an applied rule is present in the analyzed portion of the multimedia content, thetransrater110 may perform one or more content actions associated with the rule with respect to the multimedia content. For example, using the change-in-volume content characteristic described above, a corresponding content action can include, for example, a reduction in the bit-rate of the multimedia data representing the commercial content. As a result, the data representing the commercial content can be reduced without materially affecting the user's enjoyment of the program because users typically do not pay as much attention to commercials as they do the remainder of the program and the commercials therefore do not need to be of the same or similar quality as the rest of the program.
• Thetransrater110 thus can apply the rules template to the multimedia data by analyzing the multimedia content of the data in view of some or all of the rules of the template, thereby generating modified multimedia data116 from the receivedmultimedia data108. The modified multimedia data116 then may be provided for storage in thestorage device106 for subsequent access.
• Referring toFIG. 2, another exemplarymultimedia processing system200 is illustrated in accordance with at least one embodiment of the present disclosure. As illustrated, thesystem200 includes themultimedia processing device102 having an input connected to astorage device206 and an output connected to at least onemultimedia device210 via anetwork204. In the illustrated example, thetransrater110 may accessmultimedia data208 stored in thestorage device206, identify the appropriate rules template from thetemplate database112 usingprogram information214 associated with themultimedia data208, and apply the identified template to the multimedia content of themultimedia data208 to generate modified multimedia data216 as described above. Further, in addition to, or instead of, providing the modified multimedia data216 for storage in a local storage device, the modified multimedia data216 may be transmitted for storage in themultimedia device208 via thenetwork204, where thenetwork204 may include, for example, a wireless network, the Internet, a universal serial bus (USB), and the like. Accordingly, the modified multimedia data216 subsequently may be accessed by the multimedia device for processing for display or for transmission to another device.
• It will be appreciated that data storage limitations of themultimedia device210 and/or bandwidth limitations of thenetwork204 may require additional consideration when transrating theinput multimedia data208 to generate the output modified multimedia data216 so as to comply with these limitations. Accordingly, in at least one embodiment, thetemplate database112 may include templates indexed not only by, for example, program type, but also by one or more characteristics of themultimedia device210 and/or thenetwork204. For example, a given news program may have a plurality of different rules templates that can be applied, where some rules templates are directed to portable multimedia devices that have limited storage and other rules templates are directed to multimedia devices or storage devices that have less limited storage or higher-bandwidth network connections. Those rules template directed to portable device can have, for example, rules that have more aggressive data-reducing content actions, whereas those rule templates directed to high-capacity devices can have, for example, rules that are less aggressive with respect to data-reduction and focus more on total image quality.
• Table 1 below provides a non-limiting list of exemplary rules used to process the content of multimedia data.

• TABLE 1
  Exemplary Rule Sets

  Rule Name	Content Characteristic Description	Content Action(s)
  Commercial	Change in average volume > threshold	Insert commercial index into
  Detect		multimedia data
  		Reduce bit rate for duration of
  		identified commercial content
  		Reduce resolution for duration of
  		identified commercial content
  Score Change	OCR analysis of portion of image	Increase audio volume of content for
  	representing score box indicates	time period encompassing the score
  	change in text (and therefore change in	change
  	score)	Increase bit-rate of content for time
  		period encompassing the score change
  		Increase resolution of content for time
  		period encompassing the score change
  Goal	Audio content includes the voiced	Increase bit rate of content for time
  	word “goal”	period encompassing the goal
  Game in Play	Detect time period having a yellow	Increase bit rate of content for time
  	line in image frame indicating line of	period
  	scrimmage in football game
  Talking Head	Unconditional	Decrease bit rate for screen portion
  Box		used to display news anchor
  Stock Ticker	Unconditional	Decrease resolution for screen portion
  		used to display stock prices

• Referring toFIG. 3, an exemplary implementation of thetransrater110 ofFIGS. 1 and 2 is illustrated in accordance with at least one embodiment of the present disclosure. Theexemplary transrater300 includes a rules table identifier module302, arules table buffer304, a content analyzer306, aninput data buffer308, atranscoder310, anoutput data buffer312, a system layer formatter314 and anindexer316.
• In operation,multimedia data322 is received and buffered in theinput data buffer308. Program information324 associated with theinput multimedia data322 is provided to the table identifier module302. Based on the program information324, the table identifier302 indexes therules table database112 to identify an appropriate rules table326 to apply to theincoming multimedia data322. The identified rules table326 can be provided for storage in thetable buffer304 for use by the content analyzer306. Alternately, an indicator (e.g., an address or pointer) to the identified rules table326 may be provided to the content analyzer306.
• In at least one embodiment, the table identifier302 has access to electronic programming guide (EPG)information318 so that the table identifier302 may identify one or more program types of theincoming multimedia data322 and identify the rules table326 accordingly. In at least one embodiment, multiple rules tables may be appropriately applied to themultimedia data322. In such instances, the table identifier module302 can select the more appropriate template to apply to themultimedia data322, where the more appropriate template typically is the template aligned with the most specific program type. For example, theEPG information318 may identify theincoming multimedia data322 as being associated with a sports program in general and a soccer game program specifically. The table identifier module302 therefore may identify a rules template associated with soccer game programs in particular. If such template is not available, the table identifier module302 alternatively may select a rules template associated with sports programs in general.
• Moreover, in one embodiment, when no rules template is identified based on specific program information, the table identifier302 may select a default rules template. For example, if themultimedia data322 represents a news broadcast from a particular television network for which there is no corresponding rules template in thetemplate database112, the table identifier module302 may select a default template that may be generally associated with, for example, the type ofmultimedia device210 that is expected to receive the resulting modified multimedia data.
• An exemplary implementation of therules template326 is depicted byFIG. 3. As illustrated, some or all of the rules templates of thetemplate database112 may include one or more rules (e.g., rules entries330-333, also identified as Rule1-Rule N), each rule having a content characteristic descriptor (e.g., content characteristic descriptors CC₁-CC_Nfor rule entries330-333, respectively) and one or more content action descriptors (CA) associated with each content characteristic descriptor. The content characteristic descriptors typically represent a content characteristic which, if found in an analyzed content portion, results in the performance (or the avoidance of the performance) of one or more content actions represented by the one or more content action descriptors. The content characteristic descriptors typically include information describing a characteristic of the multimedia content (such as, for example, a descriptor indicating that if an optical character recognition analysis of the top portion of successive frames indicates that the score of a game has changed). The content characteristic descriptors may include, for example, microcode, a pointer to a memory location storing a routine for performing the one or more content actions, or information used in processing the multimedia data (such as, for example, a quantization scaling factor or a resolution scaling factor to be applied by the transcoder310).
• Each rule further may include alink field336 to indicate if the rule is linked to any other links and alink type field338 to indicate the type of link (e.g., an AND relationship or an OR relationship). For example,Rule1 may be linked toRule2 in an AND relationship whereby if the content characteristic ofRule1 is found the content characteristic ofRule2 also must be found before the content actions ofRule1 can be performed. As another example,Rule1 may be linked toRule2 in an OR relationship whereby if the content characteristic ofRule1 is identified as present in the analyzed content portion,Rule2 is not to be applied to the content portion.
• Although the exemplary rules described above have a condition (the presence of the content characteristic) before the corresponding one or more content actions can be performed, in at least one embodiment one or more of the rules may be unconditional rules whose content action(s) are always performed without a corresponding condition being met. For example, for multimedia content representing a new program, the image portion of successive frames that represents, for example, a stock ticker can be transrated so as to automatically reduce the image portion's resolution with an analysis of the content of the image portion.
• The content analyzer306, in one embodiment, analyzes the multimedia content of themultimedia data322 in view of some or all of the rules of therule template326. Accordingly, in one embodiment, the content analyzer306 obtains rule information from the table buffer304 (or, alternatively, from thetemplate database112 directly) and analyzes the content of themultimedia data322 to determine if content characteristics associated with the applied rules are present in one or more portions of the multimedia content.
• In some instances, the content analyzer306 can analyze themultimedia data322 for certain content characteristics while themultimedia data322 is in encoded form. To illustrate, an exemplary content characteristic to be identified can be an amount of motion between successive frames that is greater than a certain threshold. In this case, the content analyzer306 may analyze, for example, the motion vector information of the encodedmultimedia data322 to determine if there is substantial motion between image frames. However, in other instances, identifying certain content characteristics can require that themultimedia data322 be in decoded form. For example, in one embodiment the content characteristic may be the identification of the word “goal” in the audio content of themultimedia data322. In this case, the content analyzer306 typically would access decoded audio information to perform an audio analysis for the word “goal”. Accordingly, thetranscoder310 may decode some or all of themultimedia data322 and store the decoded multimedia data in a frame buffer340 (exemplary illustrated as part of the data buffer308). The content analyzer306 then may access the decoded multimedia data in theframe buffer340 to perform the content analysis.
• The portion of the content of themultimedia data322 analyzed for any particular content characteristic typically is dependent on the particular characteristic. To illustrate, the content characteristic of a change in displayed text representing, for example, a score or a stock value may be identified by an OCR analysis of a certain segment of two successive image frames. Thus, the content portion for this characteristic would be two or more frames. As another example, the content characteristic may be the presence of a yellow line indicating the line of scrimmage in a football game. In this instance, the yellow line may be detected by analyzing a particular portion of a single image frame (e.g., the center column of an image frame). In this case, the analyzed content portion can include the center column of the image frame.
• In the event that the content analyzer306 detects that a content characteristic of a rule is present in an analyzed portion of themultimedia data322, the content analyzer306 provides the transcoder310 an indication of the one or more content actions to be performed. Thetranscoder310 then processes some or all of themultimedia data322 in accordance with the content actions to generate modifiedmultimedia data342. Themultimedia data342 then may be stored in theoutgoing data buffer312 before it is formatted for transmission as, for example, anMPEG program stream346 by the system layer formatter314.
• In at least one embodiment, a content action to be performed includes embedding a content characteristic index in the modifiedmultimedia data342, where the content characteristic index identifies the corresponding portion ofmultimedia data342 as representing multimedia content having the indicated content characteristic. For example, the content analyzer306 may analyze the audio content of themultimedia data322 to identify rapid increases in the average volume of the audio. In the event that such an average volume increase is found, the corresponding content action can include inserting a content characteristic that identifies the multimedia data portion representing, for example, the next thirty seconds of content as a commercial. Thus, themultimedia data342 subsequently can be rapidly searched to identify the data associated with commercial content and this content may be filtered by, for example, removing the commercial content, reducing the audio volume of the commercial content, reducing the resolution and/or bit rate of the commercial content, and the like. Alternately, the content action can include the creation of a separate index table to a location of the commercial content.
• Accordingly, upon identifying a content characteristic present in a portion of the multimedia content that has a corresponding content index action, the content analyzer306 may provide index information to theindexer316 which then manages the insertion of the appropriate content characteristic index into the multimedia data341 using, for example, the system layer formatter314.
• Referring toFIG. 4, an exemplarydynamic transrating method400 is illustrated in accordance with at least one embodiment of the present disclosure. Themethod400 initiates atstep402 whereby multimedia data is received and temporarily buffered. At step404, the appropriate rules template for the multimedia data is selected based on program information, such as, for example, program type, associated with the multimedia data. As noted above, there can be a number of rules templates appropriate for application to the multimedia data. In such instances, the rules template more aligned with the program characteristics (e.g., a rules template specifically for a football game rather than a general sports program template) is selected. In the event that a specific rules template is not available or appropriate, in one embodiment a default general rules template may be selected.
• Atstep406, a rule from the selected rules template is accessed and a portion of the content of the multimedia data is analyzed to determine whether the content characteristic associated with the rule is present in the analyzed content portion. If the content characteristic is not present in the analyzed content portion, themethod400 continues to step410. Otherwise, when the content characteristic is present, one or more of the content actions associated with the rule are performed atstep408. In one embodiment, rules may be linked using logical operations such as AND operations and/or OR operations. Accordingly, if so linked, the content actions of the rule may not be performed atstep408 until the conditions of other linked rules are confirmed.
• Atstep410 the rules template is checked to determine if the last rule to be applied has been applied. If not, themethod400 repeats steps406-410 for the next rule to be applied. If it is determined at step412 that content portions of the multimedia data have yet to be analyzed, themethod400 repeats steps406-410 to apply the appropriate rules to the next multimedia content portion to be analyzed.
• Atstep414 the resulting modified multimedia data is provided for storage in a storage device, such as a hard disc or a DVD disc, or provided for transmission to one or more multimedia devices, such as a cellular phone or PDA, via a network. As a result, the original multimedia data may be modified so as to reduce its size while retaining suitable content quality.
• Other embodiments, uses, and advantages of the present disclosure will be apparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of the specification and practice of the disclosure disclosed herein. The specification and drawings should be considered exemplary only, and the scope of the disclosure is accordingly intended to be limited only by the following claims and equivalents thereof.

Claims (20)

1. In a multimedia processing device, a method comprising:

performing an audio analysis of audio content of multimedia data for a specified sound, the multimedia data representing multimedia content for a program; and

modifying the multimedia data in response to determining the specified sound is present in the audio content.

2. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the specified sound is a spoken word.

3. The method ofclaim 2, wherein the program comprises a sports program and the spoken word is associated with an event in the sports program.

4. The method ofclaim 1, wherein modifying the multimedia data comprises changing an audio volume for a portion of the multimedia data that is associated with the specified sound.

5. The method ofclaim 1, wherein modifying the multimedia data comprises changing at least one of a bit rate or a resolution for a portion of the multimedia data that is associated with the specified sound.

6. The method ofclaim 1, wherein modifying the multimedia data comprises inserting an identifier into a portion of the multimedia data that is associated with the specified sound, the identifier identifying the portion of the multimedia data as being associated with the specified sound.

7. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising:

identifying a select template of a plurality of templates based on the program, wherein the select template comprises a rule specifying an audio analysis for the specified sound; and

wherein performing the audio analysis comprises performing the audio analysis based on the select template.

8. The method ofclaim 7, wherein the select template is identified based on received electronic programming guide information associated with the program.

9. A multimedia processing device comprising:

a content analyzer to perform an audio analysis of audio content of multimedia data for a specified sound, the multimedia data representing multimedia content for a program; and

a transcoder to modify the multimedia data in response to determining the specified sound is present in the audio content.

10. The multimedia processing device ofclaim 9, wherein the specified sound is a spoken word.

11. The multimedia processing device ofclaim 10, wherein the program comprises a sports program and the spoken word is associated with an event in the sports program.

12. The multimedia processing device ofclaim 9, wherein the transcoder is to modify the multimedia data by changing an audio volume for a portion of the multimedia data that is associated with the specified sound.

13. The multimedia processing device ofclaim 9, wherein the transcoder is to modify the multimedia data by changing at least one of a bit rate or a resolution for a portion of the multimedia data that is associated with the specified sound.

14. The multimedia processing device ofclaim 9, further comprising:

a system layer formatter to insert an identifier into a portion of the multimedia data that is associated with the specified sound, the identifier identifying the portion of the multimedia data as being associated with the specified sound.

15. The multimedia processing device ofclaim 9, further comprising:

a rules table identifier module to identify a select template of a plurality of templates based on the program, wherein the select template comprises a rule specifying an audio analysis for the specified sound; and

wherein the content analyzer performs the audio analysis based on the select template.

16. In a multimedia processing device, a method comprising:

receiving multimedia data representing multimedia content for a program;

identifying a select template of a plurality of templates based on the program, wherein the select template comprises a plurality of rules, each rule comprising a characteristic and one or more actions to be performed by the multimedia processing device in association with the characteristic, wherein the plurality of rules includes a select rule comprising a characteristic representing a specified sound;

performing an audio analysis of the multimedia data for the specified sound responsive to identifying the select rule in the select template.

17. The method ofclaim 16, further comprising

performing the one or more actions associated with the select rule when a portion of the multimedia data is determined to have the specified sound.

18. The method ofclaim 17, wherein the one or more actions associated with the select rule comprise an action to change at least one of a bit rate or a resolution of at least the portion of the multimedia data.

19. The method ofclaim 17, wherein the one or more actions associated with the select rule comprise an action to change a volume for least the portion of the multimedia data.

20. The method ofclaim 17, wherein the one or more actions associated with the select rule comprise an action to insert an identifier into the portion of the multimedia data, the identifier identifying the portion of the multimedia data as having the specified sound.

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