Use of watermarking to trigger fingerprint-related action
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:
extracting, by a media client from an out-of-band signal, a watermark payload including an advertisement identifier of an upcoming advertisement in a media stream being processed by the media client, wherein the watermark payload comprises a time offset;
establishing a synchronous lock between a current time according to a clock of the media client and the time offset;
receiving, by the media client, digital reference fingerprints representing the upcoming advertisement corresponding to the advertisement identifier;
transitioning from generating digital query fingerprints representing the media stream at a first non-zero fingerprint-generation rate to a second fingerprint-generation rate that is greater than the first non-zero fingerprint-generation rate; and
comparing, by the media client, digital query fingerprints generated at the second fingerprint-generation rate with the digital reference fingerprints to determine when in the media stream the upcoming advertisement begins.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the digital reference fingerprints also represent media content preceding the upcoming advertisement.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the media client comprises a streaming media receiver or a television.
4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
engaging in content modification of a modifiable-content segment of the media stream corresponding to the upcoming advertisement;
generating digital query fingerprints of the modifiable-content segment during the content modification; and
comparing the digital query fingerprints of the modifiable-content segment with the digital reference fingerprints.
5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising:
determining, based on the comparing, that the digital query fingerprints of the modifiable-content segment do not match the digital reference fingerprints; and
based at least on the determination of a mismatch, stopping the content modification.
6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising reverting to play the modifiable-content segment of the media stream.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the watermark payload comprises an absolute time, and the method further comprises establishing a time mapping to translate the absolute time to a current time according to a clock of the media client.
8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, via Internet Protocol (IP) messaging, a message that correlates a reference code in the watermark payload with content-revision characteristics; and
performing the content-revision characteristics on the media stream.
9. A media client comprising:
a processing unit; and
non-transitory data storage coupled to the processing unit, wherein the processing unit is configured to:
extract, from an out-of-band signal, a watermark payload including an advertisement identifier of an upcoming advertisement in a media stream being processed by the media client, wherein the watermark payload comprises an absolute time;
establish a time mapping to translate the absolute time to a current time according to a clock of the media client;
receive digital reference fingerprints representing the upcoming advertisement corresponding to the advertisement identifier;
transition from generating digital query fingerprints representing the media stream at a first non-zero fingerprint-generation rate to a second fingerprint-generation rate that is greater than the first non-zero fingerprint-generation rate; and
compare digital query fingerprints generated at the second fingerprint-generation rate with the digital reference fingerprints to determine when in the media stream the upcoming advertisement begins.
10. The media client of claim 9 , wherein the digital reference fingerprints also represent media content preceding the upcoming advertisement.
11. The media client of claim 9 , wherein the media client comprises a streaming media receiver or a television.
12. The media client of claim 9 , wherein the processing unit is further configured to:
engage in content modification of a modifiable-content segment of the media stream corresponding to the upcoming advertisement;
generate digital query fingerprints of the modifiable-content segment during the content modification; and
compare the digital query fingerprints of the modifiable-content segment with the digital reference fingerprints.
13. The media client of claim 12 , wherein the processing unit is further configured to:
determine, based on the comparison, that the digital query fingerprints of the modifiable-content segment do not match the digital reference fingerprints; and
based at least on the determination of a mismatch, stop the content modification.
14. The media client of claim 13 , wherein the processing unit is further configured to revert to play the modifiable-content segment of the media stream.
15. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions that when executed by a processing unit of a media client, cause the media client to perform operations, the operations comprising:
extracting, from an out-of-band signal, a watermark payload including an advertisement identifier of an upcoming advertisement in a media stream being processed by the media client;
receiving digital reference fingerprints representing the upcoming advertisement corresponding to the advertisement identifier;
transitioning from generating digital query fingerprints representing the media stream at a first non-zero fingerprint-generation rate to a second fingerprint-generation rate that is greater than the first non-zero fingerprint-generation rate;
comparing digital query fingerprints generated at the second fingerprint-generation rate with the digital reference fingerprints to determine when in the media stream the upcoming advertisement begins;
receiving, via Internet Protocol (IP) messaging, a message that correlates a reference code in the watermark payload with content-revision characteristics; and
performing the content-revision characteristics on the media stream.
16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the digital reference fingerprints also represent media content preceding the upcoming advertisement.
17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the media client comprises a streaming media receiver or a television.
18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the operations further comprise:
engaging in content modification of a modifiable-content segment of the media stream corresponding to the upcoming advertisement;
generating digital query fingerprints of the modifiable-content segment during the content modification; and
comparing the digital query fingerprints of the modifiable-content segment with the digital reference fingerprints.
19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18 , wherein the operations further comprise:
determining, based on the comparing, that the digital query fingerprints of the modifiable-content segment do not match the digital reference fingerprints; and
based at least on the determination of a mismatch, stopping the content modification.
20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 19 , wherein the operations further comprise reverting to play the modifiable-content segment of the media stream.