Method and system for segmenting and transmitting on-demand live-action video in real-time

1. A method for creating a video segment representing a portion of a live-action sporting event from one or more video-feeds, comprising:

monitoring the live-action event video feeds;

detecting one or more event-triggers with detectors, each event trigger being registered at a specific time;

receiving external metadata from other than analysis of the video feeds and any accompanying text and audio streams;

assigning each detected event trigger a weighted value representative of the confidence that an event of interest in the live-action sporting event may have occurred and;

determining using an algorithm that is specific to the live-action event when an event-segment occurred by evaluating whether the aggregate of the weighted values of event triggers registered within a predetermined length of time that corresponds to a plurality of video frames, along with the external metadata, together indicate that an event-segment occurred;

wherein the step of evaluating includes weighting the weighted values relative to one another based on the relative reliability of the detectors to one another; and

editing one or more video feeds into the video-segment so that it is a continuous video that encompasses at least one event-segment.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of determining if the event-state is “on” or “off.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising the step of recording one or more of the one or more video-feeds if the event-state is determined to be “on”.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the detectors comprise frame-by-frame pattern recognition detectors.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the detectors comprise physical sensors.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the detectors comprise audio recognition detectors.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the external metadata includes scoring information regarding scoring values input into a database separately from the video feeds.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the external metadata includes scoreboard information obtained without reference to the video feeds.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the weighted value is assigned based upon the detected event-trigger exceeding a predetermined threshold.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the weighted value is assigned proportionally based upon the detected event-trigger exceeding a predetermined threshold.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein each detected event-trigger is assigned a weighted value based upon the predetermined relative weight of the detector that detected the event-trigger.

12. A method as claimed in claim 11 , wherein the the step of determining includes evaluating a detection by one detector in the absence of a detection by one or more other detectors.

13. A method as claimed in claim 11 , wherein the weighted value is assigned to a particular event-trigger is based partially upon a detection by one detector in the presence of a detection by another detector.

14. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein information describing the event-segment is added to the video-segment, the content of which is determined by the type of event triggers detected and the external metadata.

15. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein one or more of the video-feeds comprise a pre-edited compilation of one or more video-feeds.

16. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the process of evaluating includes determining that the weighted values of one or more of the event triggers exceeds a predetermined threshold.

17. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the process of evaluating includes determining that the weighted values of one or more of the event triggers exceeds a predetermined range of values.

18. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the process of evaluating includes determining that the weighted values of one or more of the event triggers is greater than or equal to a predetermined value.

19. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the process of evaluating includes determining that the weighted values of one or more event triggers is less than or equal to a predetermined value.

20. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the process of evaluating includes determining that the weighted values of one or more event triggers equals a predetermined value.

21. A method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the algorithm is based on certain times during the live-action sporting event corresponding to predetermined event-triggers unique to the type of live-action sporting event.

22. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of determining where an event-segment occurred based on the detected event-triggers.

23. The method of claim 22 , wherein the process of evaluating includes matching the recorded time of an event-trigger corresponding to a pre-selected detector.

24. The method of claim 22 , wherein the process of evaluating includes considering that an average of the recorded times of all event-triggers fall within a range of time with respect to the recorded time of an event-trigger of a pre-selected detector.

25. The method of claim 22 , wherein one or more video feeds are edited into the video segment to encompass the event-segment based on when it is determined that an event-segment occurred.

26. The method of claim 22 , wherein one or more video feeds are edited into the video segment by beginning and ending the video-segment based on predetermined times before and after the event-segment occurred for different types of event-segments.

27. The method of claim 22 , wherein only those event-triggers with equal recorded times correspond to the same event-segment.

28. A system comprising:

one or more video-feeds capturing a live-action sporting event;

event-trigger detectors;

a source of external metadata other than analysis of the video feeds and any accompanying text and audio streams;

memory storage devices;

a computer process for assigning weights to each detected event trigger; wherein the weighted value is representative of the confidence that an event of interest in the live-action sporting event may have occurred;

a computer-processor for determining if an event-segment occurred based on the detected event-triggers;

wherein the computer-processor determines when an event-segment occurs by evaluating whether the aggregate of the weighted values of event triggers registered within a predetermined length of time, along with the external metadata, together indicate that an event-segment occurred; and

wherein the computer-processor is configured to, when it is determining whether an event-segment occurs, weight the weighted values relative to one another based on the relative reliability of the detectors to one another.

29. The system of claim 28 , wherein the detectors comprise frame-by-frame pattern recognition detectors.

30. The system of claim 28 , wherein the detectors comprise physical sensors.

31. The system of claim 28 , wherein the detectors comprise audio recognition detectors.

32. The system of claim 28 , wherein the external metadata includes scoring information from a database not derived from the video feeds.

33. The system of claim 28 , wherein the external metadata includes scoreboard information detector without reference to the video feeds.

34. A method for identifying an event segment in a live-action sporting event, comprising:

monitoring at least one video feed of the live-action sporting event;

detecting one or more event-triggers with detectors;

receiving external metadata from other than analysis of the video feeds and any accompanying text and audio streams;

assigning each detected event trigger a weighted value representative of the confidence that an event of interest in the live-action sporting event may have occurred; and

determining if an event-segment occurred by evaluating whether the aggregate of the weighted values of event triggers registered within a predetermined length of time that corresponds to a plurality of video frames, along with the external metadata, together indicate that an event-segment occurred.

35. The method of claim 34 , further comprising the step of determining if the event-state is “on” or “off.

36. The method of claim 35 , further comprising the step of recording one or more of the one or more video-feeds if the event-state is determined to be “on”.

37. The method of claim 34 , wherein the detectors comprise frame-by-frame pattern recognition detectors.

38. The method of claim 34 , wherein the detectors comprise physical sensors.

39. The method of claim 34 , wherein the detectors comprise audio recognition detectors.

40. The method of claim 34 , wherein the external metadata includes a scoring information detector input into a database separately from the video feeds.

41. The method of claim 34 , wherein the external metadata includes scoreboard information without reference to the video feeds.

42. The method of claim 34 , wherein the weighted value is assigned based upon the detected event-trigger exceeding a predetermined threshold.

43. The method of claim 34 , wherein the weighted value is assigned proportionally based upon the detected event-trigger exceeding a predetermined threshold.

44. The method according to claim 34 , wherein each detected event-trigger is assigned a weighted value based upon the predetermined relative weight of the detector that detected the event-trigger.

45. A method as claimed in claim 44 , wherein the weighted value is assigned based upon a detection by one detector in the absence of a detection by one or more other detectors.

46. A method as claimed in claim 44 , wherein the weighted value is assigned based upon a detection by one detector in the presence of a detection by another detector.

47. A method as claimed in claim 34 , wherein information describing the event-segment is added to the video-segment, the content of which is determined by the types of event triggers detected and the external metadata.

48. A method as claimed in claim 34 , wherein one or more of the video-feeds comprise a pre-edited compilation of one or more video-feeds.

49. The method of claim 34 , wherein it is determined if an event-segment occurred based on an algorithm that is specific to the live-action event.

50. A method as claimed in claim 49 , wherein the process of evaluating includes determining that on one or more of weighted values exceeds a predetermined threshold.

51. A method as claimed in claim 49 , wherein the process of evaluating includes determining that on one or more weighted values exceeds a predetermined range of values.

52. A method as claimed in claim 49 , wherein the process of evaluating includes determining that one or more of weighted values is greater than or equal to a predetermined value.

53. A method as claimed in claim 49 , wherein the process of evaluating includes determining that one or more of weighted values is less than or equal to a predetermined value.

54. A method as claimed in claim 49 , wherein the process of evaluating includes determining that one or more of the weighted values equals a predetermined value.

55. A method as claimed in claim 49 , wherein the process of evaluating includes accounting for the fact that certain times during the live-action sporting event correspond to predetermined event-triggers unique to the type of live-action sporting event.

56. The method of claim 34 , further comprising the step of determining where an event-segment occurred based on the detected event-triggers.

57. The method of claim 56 , wherein the process of evaluating includes matching the recorded time of an event-trigger corresponding to a pre-selected detector.

58. The method of claim 34 , wherein the process of evaluating includes considering that all event-triggers falling within a range of time within the time recorded for the event-trigger of said pre-selected detector correspond to the same event-segment.

59. The method of claim 56 , wherein the process of evaluating includes considering that event-segment is more likely to have occurred when an average of the recorded times of all event-triggers fall within a range of time with respect to the recorded time of an event-trigger of a pre-selected detector.

60. The method of claim 56 , wherein only those event-triggers with equal recorded times correspond to the same event-segment.