Abstract: A portion of media content is accessed. Components from a first and each subsequent spatial regions of the media content are sampled. Each spatial region has an unsegmented area. Each subsequent spatial region includes those within its area as elements thereof or the spatial regions may partially overlap. The regions may overlap independent of a hierarchical relationship between the regions. A media fingerprint is derived from the components of each of the spatial regions, which reliably corresponds to the media content portion, e.g., over geometric attacks such as rotation.

Abstract: Content identification and quality monitoring are provided. The method involves obtaining a first fingerprint derived from a first media content, processing the first media content to generate a second media content, obtaining a second fingerprint derived from the second media content, and comparing the first fingerprint and the second fingerprint to determine one or more of: a similarity between the first fingerprint and the second fingerprint that indicates that the second media content is generated from the first media content or a difference between the first fingerprint and the second fingerprint to identify a quality degradation between the first media content and the second media content.

Abstract: Methods, apparatuses and program logic in storage media to process media data for quality enhancement. The media data is for rendering at a wireless device. Environmental quantities are accepted from one or more sensors located remote from the wireless device but sufficiently close to be indicative of similar quantities in the device's environment. The sensors at in or connected to a network node. At the network node, the method includes processing the media data using the environmental quantities to generate processed data, and wirelessly sending the processed output to the resource constrained device for rendering, such that the processed output is usable by the resource constrained device to render or to process and render the media data.

Abstract: Methods, apparatuses and program logic in storage media to process media data for quality enhancement. Information is accepted from a resource constrained device, e.g., a wireless portable device related to the quality enhancement and/or environmental quantities such as background noise and/or ambient lighting for the device. Media data is data processed to achieve quality enhancement using at least some of the accepted information to generate processed output. The data processing of the media data includes processing when or where one or more resources sufficient for the processing are available.

Abstract: Robust media fingerprints are derived from a portion of audio content. A portion of content in an audio signal is categorized. The audio content is characterized based, at least in part, on one or more of its features. The features may include a component that relates to one of several sound categories, e.g., speech and/or noise, which may be mixed with the audio signal. Upon categorizing the audio content as free of the speech or noise related components, the audio signal component is processed. Upon categorizing the audio content as including the speech related component and/or the noise related components, the speech or noise related components are separated from the audio signal. The audio signal is processed independent of the speech related component and/or the noise related component. Processing the audio signal includes computing the audio fingerprint, which ably corresponds to the audio signal.

Abstract: Deriving a fingerprint of an image corresponding to media content involves selecting at least two different regions of the same image, determining a relationship between the two regions, and deriving a fingerprint of the image based on the relationship between the two regions of the image.

Abstract: A transport container for metal alcoholates, comprising a rigid outer container (11), which consists primarily of renewable raw materials, and a flexible bulk material container (10), which is inside the outer container, wherein the flexible bulk material container has at least one inner diffusion-impermeable layer and an outer flexible fabric layer.

Abstract: Information is associated with media content. Upon an upload of a portion of the media content, a media fingerprint is derived therefrom. The media fingerprint includes a unique representation of the media content portion, which is derived from a characteristic component of the media content portion. The information is associated with the media content portion based on the derived media fingerprint. Upon streaming the media content portion, the associated information is linked and presented in real time with the media content portion. Upon upload of the media content portion, the media fingerprint may be derived therefrom at upload time or at any time subsequent to upload time and prior to presentation time. The media content may comprise an original instance of content or a derivative instance of the original content.

Abstract: Quantized energy values are accessed to initially represent a temporally related group of content elements in a media sequence. The values are accessed over a matrix of regions into which the initial representation is partitioned. The initial representation may be downsampled and/or cropped from the content. A basis vector set is estimated in a dimensional space from the values. The initial representation is transformed into a subsequent representation, which is in another dimensional space. The subsequent representation projects the initial representation, based on the basis vectors. The subsequent representation reliably corresponds to the media content portion over a change in a geometric orientation thereof. Repeated for other media content portions of the group, subsequent representations of the first and other portions are averaged or transformed over time. The averaged/transformed values reliably correspond to the content portion over speed changes.

Abstract: Media fingerprints, which are each derived from and uniquely correspond to a portion of media content, are stored over a distributed database. An instance of one or more information containers of the distributed database are each disposed over two or more computing devices, which are communicatively linked over a data network. The media fingerprints are distributed among the information containers based on a criterion that relates individually to each of the media fingerprints. Upon a query directed to one of the media fingerprints, at least one of the two or more computing devices is selected based on the criterion. The query is executed over the distributed database instance of the selected computing device.

Abstract: At least one object within a portion of media content is recognized. The object is essentially a feature of the media content portion. Information is associated with the recognized object based on recognizing the object.

Abstract: Blocks of audio information are arranged in groups that share encoding control parameters to reduce the amount of side information needed to convey the control parameters in an encoded signal. The configuration of groups that reduces the distortion of the encoded audio information may be determined by any of several techniques that search for an optimal or near optimal solution. The techniques include an exhaustive search, a fast optimal search and a greed merge, which allow the search technique to tradeoff the reduction in distortion against the bit rate of the encoded signal and/or the computational complexity of the search technique.

Abstract: A signature that can be used to identify video content in a series of video frames is generated by first calculating the average and variance of picture elements in a low-resolution composite image that represents a temporal and spatial composite of the video content in the series of frames. The signature is generated by applying a hash function to values derived from the average and variance composite representations. The video content of a signal can be represented by a set of signatures that are generated for multiple series of frames within the signal. A set of signatures can provide reliable identifications despite intentional and unintentional modifications to the content.

Abstract: A method for use in identifying a segment of audio and/or video information comprises obtaining a query fingerprint at each of a plurality of spaced-apart time locations in said segment, searching fingerprints in a database for a potential match for each such query fingerprint, obtaining a confidence level of a potential match to a found fingerprint in the database for each such query fingerprint, and combining the results of searching for potential matches, wherein each potential match result is weighted by respective confidence level. A confidence level may be a function of at least one or both of (1) a measure of difference between a query fingerprint and a found fingerprint and (2) the relative timing relationship between the time location of a query fingerprint and the time location of a found fingerprint.

Abstract: Signatures that can be used to identify video and audio content are generated from the content by generating measures of dissimilarity between features of corresponding groups of pixels in frames of video content and by generating low-resolution time-frequency representations of audio segments. The signatures are generated by applying a hash function to intermediate values derived from the measures of dissimilarity and to the low-resolution time-frequency representations. The generated signatures may be used in a variety of applications such as restoring synchronization between video and audio content streams and identifying copies of original video and audio content. The generated signatures can provide reliable identifications despite intentional and unintentional modifications to the content.

Abstract: Transmitters and receivers in multiple description coding systems use correlating and decorrelating transforms to generate and process multiple descriptions of elements of an input signal. The multiple descriptions include groups of correlating transform coefficients that permit recovery of an inexact facsimile of the signal if some of the correlating transform coefficients are lost or corrupted during transmission. Noiseless implementations of the correlating and decorrelating transforms are described that allow the signal elements to be quantized with different quantizing resolutions. Implementations using the Fast Hadamard Transform are described that reduce the resources needed to perform the transforms.

Abstract: A media fingerprint is derived from a portion of media content. Information is associated with the media content portion based on the derived media fingerprint. Upon linking to the associated information, the associated content is presented with the media content portion. The media fingerprint includes a unique representation of the media content portion that is derived from a characteristic component of the media content portion. The media content may comprise an original instance of content or a derivative instance of the original content.

Abstract: The loss of packets in a communication system can be minimized in an optimal manner by adapting a set of error correction (EC) parameters in response to a calculated probability of packet loss. The calculated probability is obtained from derived algorithms that are applied to a set of communication parameters. Algorithms are derived from Bernoulli-distributed traffic models and constant bit rate (CBR) traffic models of the communication system. A collapsed-state model is used to derive a very efficient algorithm that calculates an approximate probability of packet loss. Alternate applications for the algorithms are also disclosed.

Abstract: Blocks of audio information are arranged in groups that share encoding control parameters to reduce the amount of side information needed to convey the control parameters in an encoded signal. The configuration of groups that reduces the distortion of the encoded audio information may be determined by any of several techniques that search for an optimal or near optimal solution. The techniques include an exhaustive search, a fast optimal search and a greed merge, which allow the search technique to tradeoff the reduction in distortion against the bit rate of the encoded signal and/or the computational complexity of the search technique.

Abstract: Transmitters and receivers in multiple description coding systems use correlating and decorrelating transforms to generate and process multiple descriptions of elements of an input signal. The multiple descriptions include groups of correlating transform coefficients that permit recovery of an inexact facsimile of the original signal if some of the correlating transform coefficients are lost or corrupted during transmission. Noiseless implementations of the correlating and decorrelating transforms are described that allow the signal elements to be quantized with different quantizing resolutions. Implementations using the Fast Hadamard Transform are described that reduce the resources needed to perform the transforms.