Granted Patent B2

US 12,342,040 · App. 18/476,271 · Granted Jun 24, 2025

Inventors: Joseph M. Winograd (San Diego, CA); Rade Petrovic (Fremont, CA); Jian Zhao (La Canada, CA); Patrick George Downes (San Diego, CA)

H04N21/44016G06T1/0092G10L19/018H04N21/812H04N21/8358

Abstract

Claims (47)

1. A method of facilitating dynamic content replacement in content comprising:

identifying an input video stream at a receiver, the input video stream including nonreplaceable and replaceable content;

contacting an ad decisioning server associated with the input video stream

the ad decisioning server identifying a replaceable content identifying number contained in a watermark payload in the replaceable content, wherein the replaceable content identifying number is linked to a replacement content;

the ad decisioning server selecting one or more replacement contents based on the identified replaceable content identifying number;

the ad decisioning server transmitting the one or more identified replaceable content identifying numbers to the receiver;

receiving the one or more replacement contents linked to the identified replaceable content identifying number at the receiver;

analyzing the input video stream at the receiver to detect the presence of a watermark payload containing a replacement content identifying number embedded in the replaceable content; and

when a watermark payload embedded in particular replaceable content in the input video stream contains a particular replaceable content identifying number, replacing the particular replaceable content in the input video stream with the replacement content linked to the particular replaceable content identifying number.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of identifying the input video stream further comprises retrieving metadata using ATSC 3.0 watermarks in the input video stream to identify a broadcast channel.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of contacting an ad decisioning server comprises using a watermark to identify an address of the ad decisioning server.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the ad decisioning server is identified using metadata retrieved using an ATSC watermark.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the replacement content ad is identified by an ad ID carried by the watermark payload.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the ad decisioning server performs mutual authentication with a device and delivers an ad decision only if the device is authenticated.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of analyzing comprises using matched filtering/prediction.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the replacement content is synchronized to a replaceable ad using timecodes carried in the watermark payload.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising the steps of:

detecting when a watermark payload in the input video stream contains a particular replaceable content identifying number and timing information about the particular replaceable content; and

replacing the particular replaceable content in the input video stream with replacement content linked to that identifying number; and

adjusting a timing of the replacement content that replaced the particular replaceable content in correspondence to the timing information about the replaceable content.

10. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

using the adjusted timing information of the replacement content that replaced the particular replaceable content to detect upstream operations performed on the particular replaceable content including at least one of: pause, speed change, or skip operations.

11. The method of claim 9 further comprising the step of:

displaying to a user information related to the adjustment of the timing of the replacement content by means of a partial overlay message.

12. The method of claim 1 further comprising;

when the analyzing detects a replaceable content identifying number that does not match a particular identified replaceable content identifying number, counting the number of mismatches between the detected replaceable content identifying number and the particular identified an expected replaceable content identifying number; and

if the number of mismatches is below a threshold, replacing the particular replaceable content with a replacement ad linked to the particular identified replacement content identifying number.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the ad decisioning server provides an encrypted replaceable content identifying number to the receiver and the receiver performs decryption on the encrypted replaceable content identifying number to obtain a replaceable content identifying number that is carried in the watermark payload.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the watermark is a video watermark.

15. A device comprising:

a processor; and

a memory including processor executable code, the processor executable code, when executed by the processor, causes the device to;

identify an input video stream at a receiver, the input video stream including nonreplaceable and replaceable content;

contact an ad decisioning server associated with the input video stream, the ad decisioning server identifying a replaceable content identifying number contained in a watermark payload in the replaceable content, wherein the replaceable content identifying number is linked to a replacement content;

the ad decisioning server selecting one or more replacement contents based on the identified replaceable content identifying number;

the ad decisioning server transmitting the one or more identified replaceable content identifying numbers to the receiver;

receive the one or more replacement contents linked to the identified replaceable content identifying number at the receiver;

analyze the input video stream at the receiver to detect the presence of a watermark payload containing a replacement content identifying number embedded in the replaceable content; and

when a watermark payload embedded in particular replaceable content in the input video stream contains a particular replaceable content identifying number, replacing the particular replaceable content in the input video stream with the replacement content linked to the particular replaceable content identifying number.

16. A computer program product, embodied on a non-transitory computer readable medium for facilitating dynamic content replacement in content, comprising:

program code for identifying an input video stream at a receiver, the input video stream including nonreplaceable and replaceable content;

contacting an ad decisioning server associated with the input video stream, the ad decisioning server identifying a replaceable content identifying number contained in a watermark payload in the replaceable content, wherein the replaceable content identifying number is linked to a replacement content;

the ad decisioning server selecting one or more replacement contents based on the identified replaceable content identifying number;

the ad decisioning server transmitting the one or more identified replaceable content identifying numbers to the receiver;

receiving the one or more replacement contents linked to the identified replaceable content identifying number at the receiver;

analyzing the input video stream at the receiver to detect the presence of a watermark payload containing a replacement content identifying number embedded in the replaceable content; and

when a watermark payload embedded in particular replaceable content in the input video stream contains a particular replaceable content identifying number, replacing the particular replaceable content in the input video stream with the replacement content linked to the particular replaceable content identifying number.

Assignments (2)

Continuity (4)

References Cited (310)