Patents Assigned to Gracenote, Inc.
  • Patent number: 12386025
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture are disclosed to improve detection of audio signatures.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 11, 2024
    Date of Patent: August 12, 2025
    Assignee: Gracenote, Inc.
    Inventor: Zafar Rafii
  • Patent number: 12380154
    Abstract: A clustering machine can cluster descriptive vectors in a balanced manner. The clustering machine calculates distances between pairs of descriptive vectors and generates clusters of vectors arranged in a hierarchy. The clustering machine determines centroid vectors of the clusters, such that each cluster is represented by its corresponding centroid vector. The clustering machine calculates a sum of inter-cluster vector distances between pairs of centroid vectors, as well as a sum of intra-cluster vector distances between pairs of vectors in the clusters. The clustering machine calculates multiple scores of the hierarchy by varying a scalar and calculating a separate score for each scalar. The calculation of each score is based on the two sums previously calculated for the hierarchy. The clustering machine may select or otherwise identify a balanced subset of the hierarchy by finding an extremum in the calculated scores.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 21, 2024
    Date of Patent: August 5, 2025
    Assignee: Gracenote, Inc.
    Inventors: Aneesh Vartakavi, Peter C. DiMaria, Markus K. Cremer, Phillip Popp
  • Patent number: 12368523
    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: September 8, 2023
    Date of Patent: July 22, 2025
    Assignee: Gracenote, Inc.
    Inventor: Nisarg A Modi
  • Patent number: 12361955
    Abstract: A machine may be configured to generate one or more audio fingerprints of one or more segments of audio data. The machine may access audio data to be fingerprinted and divide the audio data into segments. For any given segment, the machine may generate a spectral representation from the segment; generate a vector from the spectral representation; generate an ordered set of permutations of the vector; generate an ordered set of numbers from the permutations of the vector; and generate a fingerprint of the segment of the audio data, which may be considered a sub-fingerprint of the audio data. In addition, the machine or a separate device may be configured to determine a likelihood that candidate audio data matches reference audio data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 2, 2023
    Date of Patent: July 15, 2025
    Assignee: Gracenote, Inc.
    Inventors: Jinyu Han, Robert Coover
  • Patent number: 12346373
    Abstract: Techniques of content unification are disclosed. In some example embodiments, a computer-implemented method comprises: determining clusters based a comparison of a plurality of audio content using a first matching criteria, each cluster of the plurality of clusters comprising at least two audio content from the plurality of audio content; for each cluster of the plurality of clusters, determining a representative audio content for the cluster from the at least two audio content of the cluster; loading the corresponding representative audio content of each cluster into an index; matching the query audio content to one of the representative audio contents using a first matching criteria; determining the corresponding cluster of the matched representative audio content; and identifying a match between the query audio content and at least one of the audio content of the cluster of the matched representative audio content based on a comparison using a second matching criteria.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 26, 2024
    Date of Patent: July 1, 2025
    Assignee: Gracenote, Inc.
    Inventors: Peter C. DiMaria, Markus K. Cremer, Barnabas Mink, Tanji Koshio, Kei Tsuji
  • Patent number: 12347157
    Abstract: Example systems and methods of selection of video frames using a machine learning (ML) predictor program are disclosed. The ML predictor program may generate predicted cropping boundaries for any given input image. Training raw images associated with respective sets of training master images indicative of cropping characteristics for the training raw image may be input to the ML predictor, and the ML predictor program trained to predict cropping boundaries for raw image based on expected cropping boundaries associated training master images. At runtime, the trained ML predictor program may be applied to a sequence of video image frames to determine for each respective video image frame a respective score corresponding to a highest statistical confidence associated with one or more subsets of cropping boundaries predicted for the respective video image frame. Information indicative of the respective video image frame having the highest score may be stored or recorded.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 16, 2023
    Date of Patent: July 1, 2025
    Assignee: Gracenote, Inc.
    Inventors: Aneesh Vartakavi, Casper Lützhøft Christensen
  • Patent number: 12340587
    Abstract: Methods and systems for automated video segmentation are disclosed. A sequence of video frames having video segments of contextually-related sub-sequences may be received. Each frame may be labeled according to segment and segment class. A video graph may be constructed in which each node corresponds to a different frame, and each edge connects a different pair of nodes, and is associated with a time between video frames and a similarity metric of the connected frames. An artificial neural network (ANN) may be trained to predict both labels for the nodes and clusters of the nodes corresponding to predicted membership among the segments, using the video graph as input to the ANN, and ground-truth clusters of ground-truth labeled nodes. The ANN may be further trained to predict segment classes of the predicted clusters, using the segment classes as ground truths. The trained ANN may be configured for application runtime video sequences.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 29, 2024
    Date of Patent: June 24, 2025
    Assignee: Gracenote, Inc.
    Inventors: Konstantinos Antonio Dimitriou, Amanmeet Garg
  • Patent number: 12332956
    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: December 14, 2023
    Date of Patent: June 17, 2025
    Assignee: Gracenote, Inc.
    Inventors: Phillip Popp, Ching-Wei Chen, Peter C. DiMaria, Markus K. Cremer
  • Patent number: 12300243
    Abstract: In one aspect, a method includes receiving podcast content, generating a transcript of at least a portion of the podcast content, and parsing the podcast content to (i) identify audio segments within the podcast content, (ii) determine classifications for the audio segments, (iii) identify audio segment offsets, and (iv) identify sentence offsets. The method also includes based on the audio segments, the classifications, the audio segment offsets, and the sentence offsets, dividing the generated transcript into text sentences and, from among the text sentences of the divided transcript, selecting a group of text sentences for use in generating an audio summary of the podcast content. The method also includes based on timestamps at which the group of text sentences begin in the podcast content, combining portions of audio in the podcast content that correspond to the group of text sentences to generate an audio file representing the audio summary.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 22, 2022
    Date of Patent: May 13, 2025
    Assignee: Gracenote, Inc.
    Inventors: Amanmeet Garg, Aneesh Vartakavi, Joshua Ernest Morris
  • Patent number: 12300201
    Abstract: Apparatus, methods, and systems that operate to provide interactive streaming content identification and processing are disclosed. An example apparatus includes a classifier to determine an audio characteristic value representative of an audio characteristic in audio; a transition detector to detect a transition between a first category and a second category by comparing the audio characteristic value to a threshold value among a set of threshold values, the set of threshold values corresponding to the first category and the second category; and a context manager to control a device to switch from a first fingerprinting algorithm to a second fingerprinting algorithm different than the first fingerprinting algorithm, responsive to the detected transition between the first category and the second category.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 30, 2024
    Date of Patent: May 13, 2025
    Assignee: Gracenote, Inc.
    Inventors: Michael Jeffrey, Markus K. Cremer, Dong-In Lee
  • Patent number: 12300005
    Abstract: A computing system determines accuracy of sport-related information extracted from a time sequence of digital video frames that represent a sport event, the extracted sport-related information including an attribute that changes over the time sequence. The computing system (a) detects, based on the extracted sport-related information, a pattern of change of the attribute over the time sequence and (b) makes a determination of whether the detected pattern is an expected pattern of change associated with the sport event. If the determination is that the detected pattern is the expected pattern, then, responsive to making the determination, the computing system takes a first action that corresponds to the sport-related information being accurate. Whereas, if the determination is that the detected pattern is not the expected pattern, then, responsive to making the determination, the computing system takes a second action that corresponds to the sport-related information being inaccurate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 1, 2023
    Date of Patent: May 13, 2025
    Assignee: Gracenote, Inc.
    Inventors: Jeffrey Scott, Markus Kurt Peter Cremer, Nishit Umesh Parekh, Dewey Ho Lee
  • Patent number: 12283055
    Abstract: A computing system automatically detects, in a sequence of video frames, a video frame region that depicts a scoreboard. The video frames of the sequence depict image elements including (i) scoreboard image elements that are unchanging across the video frames of the sequence and (ii) other image elements that change across the video frames of the sequence. Given this, the computing system (a) receives the sequence, (b) engages in an edge-detection process to detect, in the video frames of the sequence, a set of edges of the depicted image elements, (c) identifies a subset of the detected set of edges based on each edge of the subset being unchanging across the video frames of the sequence, and (d) detects, based on the edges of the identified subset, the video frame region that depicts the scoreboard.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 5, 2023
    Date of Patent: April 22, 2025
    Assignee: Gracenote, Inc.
    Inventors: Jeffrey Scott, Markus Kurt Peter Cremer, Nishit Parekh, Dewey Ho Lee
  • Patent number: 12273572
    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 31, 2023
    Date of Patent: April 8, 2025
    Assignee: Gracenote, Inc.
    Inventors: Aneesh Vartakavi, Arthur Findelair
  • Patent number: 12272069
    Abstract: Example systems and methods may selection of video frames using a machine learning (ML) predictor program are disclosed. The ML predictor program may generate predicted cropping boundaries for any given input image. Training raw images associated with respective sets of training master images indicative of cropping characteristics for the training raw image may be input to the ML predictor, and the ML predictor program trained to predict cropping boundaries for raw image based on expected cropping boundaries associated training master images. At runtime, the trained ML predictor program may be applied to runtime raw images in order to generate respective sets of runtime cropping boundaries corresponding to different cropped versions of the runtime raw image. The runtime raw images may be stored with information indicative of the respective sets of runtime boundaries.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 15, 2024
    Date of Patent: April 8, 2025
    Assignee: Gracenote, Inc.
    Inventors: Aneesh Vartakavi, Casper Lützhøft Christensen
  • Patent number: 12242257
    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: April 17, 2023
    Date of Patent: March 4, 2025
    Assignee: Gracenote, Inc.
    Inventors: John M. Qin, Suresh Jeyachandran, Damon P. Fasching
  • Patent number: 12242960
    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: March 16, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 4, 2025
    Assignee: Gracenote, Inc.
    Inventors: Aneesh Vartakavi, Konstantinos Antonio Dimitriou
  • Patent number: 12237910
    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 a geographic location associated with the identified reference audio content; and (f) based at least on the identified geographic location associated with the identified reference audio content, outputting, via the user interface of the vehicle-based media system, a prompt to navigate to the identified geographic location.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 13, 2023
    Date of Patent: February 25, 2025
    Assignee: Gracenote, Inc.
    Inventor: Nisarg A. Modi
  • Patent number: 12238492
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture are disclosed for audio equalization based on variant selection. An example apparatus to equalize audio includes at least one memory, machine readable instructions, and processor circuity to at least one of instantiate or execute the machine readable instructions to train a neural network model to apply a first audio equalization profile to first audio associated with a first variant of media, and apply a second audio equalization profile to second audio associated with a second variant of media. The processor circuitry is to at least one of instantiate or execute the machine readable instructions to at least one of dispatch or execute the neural network model.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 3, 2024
    Date of Patent: February 25, 2025
    Assignee: Gracenote, Inc.
    Inventors: Robert Coover, Joseph Renner, Cameron A. Summers
  • Patent number: 12235895
    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: September 7, 2023
    Date of Patent: February 25, 2025
    Assignee: Gracenote, Inc.
    Inventors: Peter C. DiMaria, Andrew Silverman
  • Patent number: 12235896
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus, systems, and articles of manufacture are disclosed to fingerprint an audio signal via exponential normalization. An example apparatus includes an audio segmenter to divide an audio signal into a plurality of audio segments including a first audio segment and a second audio segment, the first audio segment including a first time-frequency bin, the second audio segment including a second time-frequency bin, a mean calculator to determine a first exponential mean value associated with the first time frequency bin based on a first magnitude of the audio signal associated with the first time frequency bin and a second exponential mean value associated with the second time frequency bin based on a second magnitude of the audio signal associated with the second time frequency bin and the first exponential mean value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 24, 2024
    Date of Patent: February 25, 2025
    Assignee: Gracenote, Inc.
    Inventors: Alexander Berrian, Matthew James Wilkinson, Robert Coover