Patents Assigned to Gracenote, Inc.
  • Patent number: 12785835
    Abstract: In one aspect, an example method to be performed by a vehicle-based media system includes (a) receiving audio content; (b) causing one or more speakers to output the received audio content; (c) using a microphone of the vehicle-based media system to capture the output audio content; (d) identifying reference audio content that has at least a threshold extent of similarity with the captured audio content; (e) identifying visual content based at least on the identified reference audio content; and (f) outputting, via a user interface of the vehicle-based media system, the identified visual content.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 18, 2025
    Date of Patent: November 3, 2026
    Assignee: Gracenote, Inc.
    Inventor: Nisarg A Modi
  • Patent number: 12783208
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture are disclosed for dynamic volume adjustment via audio classification.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 1, 2024
    Date of Patent: November 3, 2026
    Assignee: Gracenote, Inc.
    Inventors: Markus Cremer, Robert Coover, Steven D. Scherf, Cameron Aubrey Summers
  • Patent number: 12786507
    Abstract: In one aspect, an example method includes (i) while a media playback device of a vehicle is playing back content received on a first channel, sending, by the media playback device to a server, a preview request, the preview request identifying a second channel that is different from the first channel; (ii) receiving, by the media playback device from the server, a response to the preview request, the response including identifying information corresponding to content being provided on the second channel; and (iii) while the media playback device is playing back the content received on the first channel, providing, by the media playback device for display, at least a portion of the identifying information corresponding to content being provided on the second channel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 16, 2025
    Date of Patent: November 3, 2026
    Assignee: Gracenote, Inc.
    Inventors: Pat D. Fearn, Suresh Jeyachandran, Damon P. Fasching, Mark W. Sherman
  • Patent number: 12769295
    Abstract: In one aspect, an example method includes (i) while a media playback device of a vehicle is playing back content received on a first channel, generating, by the media playback device, a query fingerprint using second content received on a second channel; (ii) sending, by the media playback device, the query fingerprint to a server that maintains a reference database containing a plurality of reference fingerprints; (iii) receiving, by the media playback device from the server, identifying information corresponding to a reference fingerprint of the plurality of reference fingerprints that matches the query fingerprint; and (iv) while the media playback device is playing back the first content received on the first channel, providing, by the media playback device for display, at least a portion of the identifying information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 17, 2025
    Date of Patent: October 20, 2026
    Assignee: Gracenote, Inc.
    Inventors: John M. Qin, Suresh Jeyachandran, Damon P Fasching
  • Patent number: 12769789
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus, systems, and articles of manufacture are disclosed to improve media identification. An example apparatus includes a hash handler to generate a first set of reference matches by performing hash functions on a subset of media data associated with media to generate hashed media data based on a first bucket size, a candidate determiner to identify a second set of reference matches that include ones of the first set, the second set including ones having first quantities of hits that did not satisfy a threshold, determine second quantities of hits for ones of the second set by matching ones to the hash tables based on a second bucket size, and identify one or more candidate matches based on at least one of (1) ones of the first set or (2) ones of the second set, and a report generator to generate a report including a media identification.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 29, 2024
    Date of Patent: October 20, 2026
    Assignee: Gracenote, Inc.
    Inventors: Jeffrey Scott, Matthew James Wilkinson, Robert Coover, Shashank Merchant
  • Patent number: 12755153
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture are disclosed methods and apparatus for audio equalization based on variant selection. An example apparatus includes a processor to obtain training data, the training data including a plurality of reference audio signals each associated with a variant of music and organize the training data into a plurality of entries based on the plurality of reference audio signals, a training model executor to execute a neural network model using the training data, and a model trainer to train the neural network model by updating at least one weight corresponding to one of the entries in the training data when the neural network model does not satisfy a training threshold.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 25, 2024
    Date of Patent: October 6, 2026
    Assignee: Gracenote, Inc.
    Inventors: Robert Coover, Joseph Renner, Cameron A. Summers
  • Patent number: 12755751
    Abstract: A method implemented by a computing system comprises generating, by the computing system, a fingerprint comprising a plurality of bin samples associated with audio content. Each bin sample is specified within a frame of the fingerprint and is associated with one of a plurality of non-overlapping frequency ranges and a value indicative of a magnitude of energy associated with a corresponding frequency range. The computing system removes, from the fingerprint, a plurality of bin samples associated with a frequency sweep in the audio content.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 31, 2024
    Date of Patent: October 6, 2026
    Assignee: Gracenote, Inc.
    Inventors: Alexander Berrian, Todd J. Hodges, Robert Coover, Matthew James Wilkinson, Zafar Rafii
  • Patent number: 12730836
    Abstract: A method and system for computer-based generation of podcast metadata, to facilitate operations such as searching for and recommending podcasts based on the generated metadata. In an example method, a computing system obtains a text representation of a podcast episode and obtains person data defining a list of person names such as celebrity names. The computing system then correlates the person data with the text representation, to find a match between a listed person name a text string in the text representation. Further, the computing system predicts a named-entity span in the text representation and determines that the predicted named-entity span matches a location of the text string in the text representation of the podcast episode, and based on this determination, the computing system generates and outputs metadata that associates the person name with the podcast episode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 28, 2025
    Date of Patent: September 8, 2026
    Assignee: Gracenote, Inc.
    Inventors: Aneesh Vartakavi, Casper Lützhøft Christensen
  • Patent number: 12720136
    Abstract: Methods and systems for prediction audience ratings are disclosed. A database of television (TV) viewing data may include program records for a multiplicity of existing TV programs. A system may receive a training plurality of program records from the TV viewing data, and for each program record a most similar TV program based on content characteristics may be identified. A synthetic program record may be constructed by merging features of each record and its most similar record. Audience performance metrics may be omitted from synthetic records. An aggregate of the training plurality of program records and the synthetic program records may be used to train a machine-learning (ML) model to predict audience performance metrics of the new or hypothetical TV programs not yet available for viewing and/or not yet transmitted or streamed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 21, 2025
    Date of Patent: August 25, 2026
    Assignee: Gracenote, Inc.
    Inventors: Scott John Sereday, Cathy Zhuang, Shufang Ban, Oana Monica Dan
  • Patent number: 12699742
    Abstract: A user of a network-based system may correspond to a user profile that describes the user. The user profile may describe the user using one or more descriptors of items that correspond to the user (e.g., items owned by the user, items liked by the user, or items rated by the user). In some situations, such a user profile may be characterized as a “taste profile” that describes an array or distribution of one or more tastes, preferences, or habits of the user. Accordingly, the user profile machine within the network-based system may generate the user profile by accessing descriptors of items that correspond to the user, clustering one or more of the descriptors, and generating the user profile based on one or more clusters of the descriptors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 12, 2025
    Date of Patent: August 4, 2026
    Assignee: Gracenote, Inc.
    Inventors: Phillip Popp, Ching-Wei Chen, Peter C. DiMaria, Markus K. Cremer
  • Patent number: 12701275
    Abstract: A computing system automatically extracting, from a digital video frame, scoreboard information including a first team name, a second team name, a first score, and a second score. The computing system (a) detects, within the digital video frame, a plurality of frame regions based on each detected frame region depicting text; (b) selects, from the detected frame regions, a set of frame regions based on the frame regions of the selected set cooperatively having a geometric arrangement that corresponds with a candidate geometric arrangement of the scoreboard information; (c) recognizes characters respectively within each of the frame regions of the selected set of frame regions; (d) based at least on the recognized characters in the frame regions of the selected set, detects the scoreboard information; and (e) records the detected scoreboard information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 15, 2023
    Date of Patent: August 4, 2026
    Assignee: Gracenote, Inc.
    Inventors: Jeffrey Scott, Markus Kurt Peter Cremer, Nishit Umesh Parekh, Dewey Ho Lee
  • Publication number: 20260220194
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture are disclosed to identify media that has been pitch shifted, time shifted, and/or resampled. An example apparatus includes: memory; instructions in the apparatus; and processor circuitry to execute the instructions to: transmit a fingerprint of an audio signal and adjusting instructions to a central facility to facilitate a query, the adjusting instructions identifying at least one of a pitch shift, a time shift, or a resample ratio; obtain a response including an identifier for the audio signal and information corresponding to how the audio signal was adjusted; and change the adjusting instructions based on the information.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 9, 2025
    Publication date: July 30, 2026
    Applicant: Gracenote, Inc.
    Inventors: Robert Coover, Matthew James Wilkinson, Jeffrey Scott, Yongju Hong
  • Patent number: 12681938
    Abstract: An example method involves comparing a primary element of a first piece of audio data to a primary element of a second piece of audio data; based on the comparing of the primary elements, determining that the first and second pieces of audio data have the same predominant mood category; in response to determining that the first and second pieces of audio data have the same predominant mood category, comparing a first mood score of the primary element of the first piece of audio data to a second mood score of the primary element of a second piece of audio data; determining that an output of the comparison of the two mood scores exceeds a threshold value; and in response to determining that the output of the comparison of the two mood scores exceeds the threshold value, providing an indicator to an application.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 2022
    Date of Patent: July 14, 2026
    Assignee: Gracenote, Inc.
    Inventors: Ching-Wei Chen, Kyogu Lee, Peter C. DiMaria, Markus K. Cremer
  • Patent number: 12681984
    Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for filtering at least one media content catalog based on criteria for a station library to generate a first list of candidate tracks for the station library, combining a similarity score and a popularity score for each track of the first list of candidate tracks to generate a total score for each track of the first list of candidate tracks, generating a list of top ranked tracks for the first genre, and returning the list of top ranked tracks of the first genre as part of the station library.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 17, 2025
    Date of Patent: July 14, 2026
    Assignee: Gracenote, Inc.
    Inventors: Peter C. DiMaria, Andrew Silverman
  • Patent number: 12671852
    Abstract: In one aspect, an example method includes (i) determining, by a computing system, a mean image of a set of frames of video content; (ii) extracting, by the computing system, a reference template of static content from the mean image; (iii) identifying, by the computing system, the extracted reference template of static content in a frame of the set of frames of the video content; (iv) labeling a segment within the video content as either a program segment or an advertisement segment based on the identifying of the extracted reference template of static content in the frame of the video content; and (v) generating data identifying the labeled segment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 11, 2025
    Date of Patent: June 30, 2026
    Assignee: Gracenote, Inc.
    Inventors: Aneesh Vartakavi, Arthur Findelair
  • Patent number: 12651166
    Abstract: Methods and systems for disambiguating musical artist names are disclosed. Musical-artist-release records (MARRs) may be input to a multi-modal artificial neural network (ANN). Each MARR may be associated with a musical release of an artist, and may include a release ID and an artist ID, and release data in categories including music media content and metadata categories including sub-definitive musician name of the artist and release subcategories. All n-tuples of MARRs may be formed, and for each n-tuple, the ANN may be applied concurrently to each MARR to generate a release feature vector (RFV) that includes a set of sub-feature vectors, each characterizing a different category of release data. For each n-tuple, the ANN may be trained to cluster in a multi-dimensional RFV space RFVs of the same artist ID, and to separate RFVs of different artist IDs. The MARRs and their RFVs may be stored in a release database.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 21, 2025
    Date of Patent: June 9, 2026
    Assignee: Gracenote, Inc.
    Inventors: Aneesh Vartakavi, Konstantinos Antonio Dimitriou
  • Patent number: 12640162
    Abstract: In one aspect, a method includes detecting a fingerprint match between query fingerprint data representing at least one audio segment within podcast content and reference fingerprint data representing known repetitive content within other podcast content, detecting a feature match between a set of audio features across multiple time-windows of the podcast content, and detecting a text match between at least one query text sentences from a transcript of the podcast content and reference text sentences, the reference text sentences comprising text sentences from the known repetitive content within the other podcast content. The method also includes responsive to the detections, generating sets of labels identifying potential repetitive content within the podcast content. The method also includes selecting, from the sets of labels, a consolidated set of labels identifying segments of repetitive content within the podcast content, and responsive to selecting the consolidated set of labels, performing an action.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 5, 2024
    Date of Patent: May 26, 2026
    Assignee: Gracenote, Inc.
    Inventors: Amanmeet Garg, Aneesh Vartakavi
  • Patent number: 12639364
    Abstract: Example methods and systems for indexing fingerprints are described. Fingerprints may be made up of sub-fingerprints, each of which corresponds to a frame of the media, which is a smaller unit of time than the fingerprint. In some example embodiments, multiple passes are performed. For example, a first pass may be performed that compares the sub-fingerprints of the query fingerprint with every thirty-second sub-fingerprint of the reference material to identify likely matches. In this example, a second pass is performed that compares the sub-fingerprints of the query fingerprint with every fourth sub-fingerprint of the likely matches to provide a greater degree of confidence. A third pass may be performed that uses every sub-fingerprint of the most likely matches, to help distinguish between similar references or to identify with greater precision the timing of the match. Each of these passes is amenable to parallelization.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 11, 2024
    Date of Patent: May 26, 2026
    Assignee: Gracenote, Inc.
    Inventor: Matthew James Wilkinson
  • Patent number: 12626718
    Abstract: A cover song identification method implemented by a computing system comprises receiving, by a computing system and from a user device, harmonic pitch class profile (HPCP) information that specifies one or more HPCP features associated with target audio content. A major chord profile feature and a minor chord profile feature associated with the target audio content are derived from the HPCP features. Machine learning logic of the computing system determines, based on the major chord profile feature and the minor chord profile feature, a relatedness between the target audio content and each of a plurality of audio content items specified in records of a database. Each audio content item is associated with cover song information. Cover song information associated with an audio content item having a highest relatedness to the target audio content is communicated to the user device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 10, 2024
    Date of Patent: May 12, 2026
    Assignee: Gracenote, Inc.
    Inventors: Xiaochen Liu, Joseph P. Renner, Joshua E. Morris, Todd J. Hodges, Robert Coover, Zafar Rafii
  • Publication number: 20260101095
    Abstract: Example systems and methods for automated generation of banner images are disclosed. A program identifier associated with a particular media program may be received by a system, and used for accessing a set of iconic digital images and corresponding metadata associated with the particular media program. The system may select a particular iconic digital image for placing a banner of text associated with the particular media program, by applying an analytical model of banner-placement criteria to the iconic digital images. The system may apply another analytical model for banner generation to the particular iconic image to determine (i) dimensions and placement of a bounding box for containing the text, (ii) segmentation of the text for display within the bounding box, and (iii) selection of font, text size, and font color for display of the text. The system may store the particular iconic digital image and banner metadata specifying the banner.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 2, 2025
    Publication date: April 9, 2026
    Applicant: Gracenote, Inc.
    Inventor: Aneesh Vartakavi