System and method for real-time media searching and alerting

Abstract

A method and system for continually storing and cataloguing streams of broadcast content, allowing real-time searching and real-time results display of all catalogued video. A bank of video recording devices store and index all video content on any number of broadcast sources. This video is stored along with the associated program information such as program name, description, airdate and channel. A parallel process obtains the text of the program, either from the closed captioning data stream, or by using a speech-to-text system. Once the text is decoded, stored, and indexed, users can then perform searches against the text, and view matching video immediately along with its associated text and broadcast information. Users can retrieve program information by other methods, such as by airdate, originating station, program name and program description. An alerting mechanism scans all content in real-time and can be configured to notify users by various means upon the occurrence of a specified search criteria in the video stream. The system is preferably designed to be used on publicly available broadcast video content, but can also be used to catalog private video, such as conference speeches or audio-only content such as radio broadcasts.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60 / 546,954, filed Feb. 24, 2004, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention relates generally to media monitoring systems. More particularly, the present invention relates to video media searching and alerting systems. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] Many businesses and organizations have an interest in what is being broadcast, but the volume of information available makes it prohibitive to monitor completely. [0004] The overwhelming majority of broadcast sources include closed captions, which have been used successfully to identify the subject matter of a video stream. Systems have been developed to monitor and act upon the closed captioned text. For example, such systems trigger on the basis of keywords and selectively record video for later viewing. However, no refinement or cross-refer...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

"The present invention provides a media monitoring system that can search recorded video in real-time using closed captioned text. The system extracts closed captioned text from video and stores it in a database. Users can access the system and select specific video segments for viewing. The system includes a media management system and a user access system. The method allows for automatic identification of video clips matching stored search terms. The technical effects of the invention include improved efficiency and accuracy in media monitoring and analysis, as well as improved user access and data management."

Problems solved by technology

Many businesses and organizations have an interest in what is being broadcast, but the volume of information available makes it prohibitive to monitor completely.

However, no refinement or cross-referencing could be performed on past video, and new searches would only be applied to subsequent video broadcasts.

For example, opening credits are video components that are typically undesired.

However, this system only records video when a match occurs.

As well, any desired content that was not caught by the programmed search is lost forever.

Therefore, the system is incapable of searching for any records prior to the new search being executed, such as recent happenings leading up to the merger.

However, the described system has no facility for archiving the video associated with the clip, nor does it present the program text to the user.

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