Automated Clip Generation Using Character Appearance Clustering

Resolve Bottlenecks,
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions

Solution Overview

Problem

Existing methods for generating clips from media content items are time-consuming and rely on subjective criteria, leading to inefficient and unreliable clip generation, especially for large media libraries.

Innovation Solution

A computer-implemented method that computes appearance values for shot sequences based on the prevalence of target characters, performs clustering operations on these sequences, and generates clips based on objective heuristics, eliminating the need for manual editing.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If manual review by editorial assistants is used to identify compelling portions, then subjective quality control is maintained, but time consumption and labor costs increase significantly

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveclip qualityVSAvoidtime to generate clips

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The patent replaces the manual mechanical review process by editorial assistants with an automated computer-based system that uses shot detection, character appearance analysis, and clustering algorithms to identify compelling portions of media content, thereby eliminating time-consuming manual labor while maintaining reliable clip quality through objective computational metrics

Inventive Principle:

Principle #28Mechanics substitution (Replace mechanical system)

Solution Approach 2:

The system enables the media content itself to 'select' compelling portions through automated analysis of shot sequences and character appearances, allowing the content to serve its own promotion needs without external manual intervention, thus resolving the contradiction between quality control and time efficiency

Inventive Principle:

Principle #25Self-service

2Reliability

If extensive manual review is performed on all media content items, then clip quality is maintained, but productivity decreases due to resource constraints

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveclip selection accuracyVSAvoidnumber of clips generated

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

The automated system replaces manual editorial review with computational algorithms that analyze shot sequences and character appearances, enabling high-volume processing of media content items without human resource constraints, thus simultaneously improving productivity while maintaining reliable clip selection through objective automated criteria

Inventive Principle:

Principle #28Mechanics substitution (Replace mechanical system)

Solution Approach 2:

The system transforms the clip selection process from subjective human judgment to objective computational parameters including shot duration, character appearance frequency, and clustering metrics, allowing scalable processing of large media libraries while maintaining consistent quality standards across all generated clips

Inventive Principle:

Principle #35Parameter changes

3Ease of operation

If subjective criteria are used by editorial assistants, then human judgment is applied, but reliability and consistency of clip selection deteriorate

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvehuman judgment flexibilityVSAvoidclip effectiveness

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of operationVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The patent replaces subjective human judgment with objective computational analysis that consistently measures shot sequence characteristics and character appearance patterns, eliminating the unreliability and inconsistency of human subjective criteria while maintaining operational simplicity through automated algorithmic processing

Inventive Principle:

Principle #28Mechanics substitution (Replace mechanical system)

Solution Approach 2:

The system establishes objective feedback loops through automated analysis of media content parameters, where computational metrics continuously evaluate shot sequences and character appearances to reliably identify compelling portions, replacing the unpredictable nature of subjective human feedback with consistent algorithmic decision-making

Inventive Principle:

Principle #23Feedback

Data Source

PatentUS12293779B2Techniques for automatically extracting compelling portions of a media content item

Publication Date: 2025.05.06 NETFLIX INC

AI summary

In various embodiments, a clip application computes a set of appearance values for an appearance metric based on shot sequences associated with a media content item. Each appearance value in the set of appearance values indicates a prevalence of a first character in a different shot sequence associated with the media content item. The clip application then performs one or more clustering operations on the shot sequences based on the set of appearance values to generate a first shot cluster. Subsequently, the clip application generates a clip for the media content item based on the first shot cluster. The clip application transmits the clip to an endpoint device for display. Advantageously, relative to primarily manual approaches, the clip application can more efficiently and reliably generate clips for media content items.