Abstract: The disclosure is of a system and method of detecting or identifying a received TV program by forming a database of identifying digital bits for a plurality of programs, processing a TV program by modulating the luminance of pairs of lines of the program and reconstituting the program with said modulated line pairs and the other components of a TV program signal. The reconstituted program is transmitted to a location at which it is decoded to recover the digital identifying bits and comparing such bits with bits in the database to identify the transmitted program.

Abstract: The disclosure relates to an apparatus and method for creating digital signatures from frames of selected video segments such as TV commercials by a digitizing, compression and selection process which produces a multi-digit signature from each frame. The signatures are stored in a memory database. In the recognition mode broadcast video transmissions are similarly digitized frame by frame to generate signatures which are then compared with the signatures in the database to find matches. The system cycles efficiently through the database testing for signature matches and then totalizing the signature matches to determine occurrences of a match between a transmitted segment or commercial and a stored segment or commercial. The system also includes signature generating and comparison circuits which permit wide variations in the quality of the input video signals form a variety of different media sources such as off-air, videotape or camera inputs while maintaining accurate recognition.

Abstract: The system includes a plurality of conference seats, at each of which is a microphone. The system also includes a TV camera and a pivotable mirror which directs light from the conference seats to the TV camera. Each of the microphones is coupled through circuit elements to a servomotor(s) which positions the mirror to focus on the speaker and aims the camera's field of vision toward active audio. The electronic portion of the system utilizes the time two adjacent microphones receive a speaker's voice to generate a signal used to drive the servomotor to perform its mirror-positioning function.