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 non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a media client, cause the media client to perform 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, 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 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 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 non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the digital reference fingerprints also represent media content preceding the upcoming advertisement.
3 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the media client comprises a streaming media receiver or a television.
4 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , 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.
5 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 4 , 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.
6 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 5 , wherein the operations further comprise reverting to play the modifiable-content segment of the media stream.
7 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the watermark payload comprises an absolute time, the operations further comprise establishing a time mapping to translate the absolute time to a current time according to a clock of the media client.
8 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:
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 method for a media client comprising:
extracting, by at least one computer processor, 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;
establishing a time mapping to translate the absolute time to a current time according to a clock of 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; and
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.
10 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the digital reference fingerprints also represent media content preceding the upcoming advertisement.
11 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the media client comprises a streaming media receiver or a television.
12 . The method of claim 9 , 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.
13 . The method of claim 12 , further comprising:
determining, 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, stopping the content modification.
14 . The method of claim 13 , further comprising, reverting to play the modifiable-content segment of the media stream.
15 . A media client, comprising:
one or more memories;
at least one processor each coupled to at least one of the memories and configured to perform 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 media client of claim 15 , wherein the digital reference fingerprints also represent media content preceding the upcoming advertisement.
17 . The media client of claim 15 , wherein the media client comprises a streaming media receiver or a television.
18 . The media client 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 media client 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 media client of claim 19 , wherein the operations further comprise reverting to play the modifiable-content segment of the media stream.