Video Fingerprint Extraction for Low-Cost Archival Storage
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing methods for searching and archiving video content are inefficient due to the massive storage capacity requirements and high costs associated with maintaining, searching, and archiving digital video data, especially when monitoring thousands of television channels over extended periods.
Innovation Solution
A system that extracts and archives fingerprint information from video content instead of the entire video data, allowing for efficient identification and tracking of visually identical video segments across different locations and time periods using a fingerprint extractor, archive database, search module, matcher, and formatter, significantly reducing storage needs and enabling low-cost hardware solutions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If full video data is archived for monitoring thousands of television channels over extended periods, then complete video content is preserved, but storage capacity requirements become massive and costs increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the essential identifying features (fingerprints) from video content rather than archiving complete video data. The fingerprint extractor module generates compact fingerprint representations that capture the unique characteristics of video segments, enabling identification and monitoring while reducing storage requirements from petabytes to manageable sizes.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates simplified copies (fingerprints) of video content that retain the essential identifying information needed for monitoring and search. These fingerprint copies serve as proxies for the original video data, allowing comprehensive monitoring of thousands of channels without storing the actual video streams.
2Measurement precision
If complete video data is stored and searched, then accurate video content identification is achieved, but searching and maintenance time increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments video content into discrete fingerprintable units and processes them independently. The search module can quickly locate specific video segments by comparing fingerprints without needing to scan through entire video streams, dramatically reducing search time while maintaining identification accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces mechanical video playback and frame-by-frame comparison with automated fingerprint matching algorithms. The matcher module uses computational methods to compare fingerprint patterns, enabling rapid identification of video content without the time-consuming process of actual video playback and visual comparison.
3Volume of stationary object
If fingerprint information is extracted and archived instead of full video data, then storage requirements are reduced significantly, but system complexity increases due to fingerprint processing
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a universal fingerprint processing framework that handles multiple video formats, compression standards, and source types through a single integrated system. The fingerprint extractor and matcher modules are designed to work with diverse video inputs, reducing the need for multiple specialized processing systems despite the variety of video sources.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements automated fingerprint extraction and matching processes that operate without manual intervention. The system self-manages the conversion of video data to fingerprints, the archiving of fingerprint data, and the matching operations, reducing operational complexity despite the sophisticated processing required.
Data Source
AI summary
A system for facilitating the search of video content, comprising a fingerprint extractor which is adapted to extract a fingerprint associated with a video content clip for specific time of video content; a fingerprint archive database from which database entries matching the specific time of video content are selected; a search module to which the database entries matching the specific time of video content are delivered, by which the searched database entries into continuous fingerprint streams are reconstructed, and in which the searched database entries from the same location and channel are grouped together, and the fingerprint data sections are stripped out of the entries and concatenated according to the segment ID and time-stamps contained within each entry; a matcher by which the fingerprint associated with the video clip is searched from the continuous fingerprint streams to find a match; and a formatter which is adapted to combine a matching result with additional information obtained from the archive entries to form a search report. The system according to the present invention can extract fingerprint information from video content for the purpose of archiving without the huge storage capacity required, can collect statistics and extract additional information from the archived video information automatically based on the user entered searching video clip information, and can search through video fingerprint data for identifying historical recording and collect statistics and extract additional information of video content easily at low hardware cost.