Patents by Inventor Zafar Rafii

Zafar Rafii has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20250166645
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus and articles of manufacture to identify sources of network streaming services are disclosed. An example method includes receiving a first audio signal that represents a decompressed second audio signal, identifying, from the first audio signal, a parameter of an audio compression configuration used to form the decompressed second audio signal, and identifying a source of the decompressed second audio signal based on the identified audio compression configuration.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 17, 2025
    Publication date: May 22, 2025
    Inventors: Zafar Rafii, Markus Cremer, Bongjun Kim
  • Publication number: 20250157451
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus for harmonic source enhancement are disclosed herein. An example apparatus includes an interface to receive a media signal. The example apparatus also includes a harmonic source enhancer to determine a magnitude spectrogram of audio corresponding to the media signal; generate a time-frequency mask based on the magnitude spectrogram; and apply the time-frequency mask to the magnitude spectrogram to enhance a harmonic source of the media signal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 15, 2025
    Publication date: May 15, 2025
    Inventor: Zafar Rafii
  • Publication number: 20250140270
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus and articles of manufacture to identify sources of network streaming services are disclosed. An example apparatus includes a coding format identifier to identify, from a received first audio signal representing a decompressed second audio signal, an audio compression configuration used to compress a third audio signal to form the second audio signal, and a source identifier to identify a source of the second audio signal based on the identified audio compression configuration.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 6, 2025
    Publication date: May 1, 2025
    Inventors: Zafar Rafii, Markus Cremer, Bongjun Kim
  • Publication number: 20250142698
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture are disclosed to adjust device control information. The example apparatus comprises a light drive waveform generator to obtain metadata corresponding to media and generate device control information based on the metadata, the device control information to inform a lighting device to enable consecutive light pulses; an effect engine to apply an attack parameter and a decay parameter to consecutive light pulses corresponding to the device control information, the attack parameter and the decay parameter based on the metadata to affect a shape of the consecutive light pulses; and a color timeline generator to generate color information based on the metadata, the color information to inform the lighting device to change a color state.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 30, 2024
    Publication date: May 1, 2025
    Inventors: Markus Kurt Cremer, Robert Coover, Zafar Rafii, Aneesh Vartakavi, Andreas Schmidt, Todd Hodges
  • Publication number: 20250119626
    Abstract: A system processed a representation of a media content item using a trained machine learning model to identify whether the media content item is a modified media content item. The trained machine learning model outputs an indication of one or more modifications of the media content item. Responsive to determining that the one or more modifications satisfy a criterion, one or more operations are performed on the media content item in view of the one or more modifications to generate an updated media content item. The updated media content item is compared to known media content items to identify known material contained therein.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 6, 2023
    Publication date: April 10, 2025
    Inventors: Zafar Rafii, Erling Wold, Todd Patrick McGee, Richard Boulderstone
  • Patent number: 12236931
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus for harmonic source enhancement are disclosed herein. An example apparatus includes an interface to receive a media signal. The example apparatus also includes a harmonic source enhancer to determine a magnitude spectrogram of audio corresponding to the media signal; generate a time-frequency mask based on the magnitude spectrogram; and apply the time-frequency mask to the magnitude spectrogram to enhance a harmonic source of the media signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 1, 2023
    Date of Patent: February 25, 2025
    Assignee: Gracenote, Inc.
    Inventor: Zafar Rafii
  • Patent number: 12236965
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus and articles of manufacture to identify sources of network streaming services are disclosed. An example method includes receiving a first audio signal that represents a decompressed second audio signal, identifying, from the first audio signal, a parameter of an audio compression configuration used to form the decompressed second audio signal, and identifying a source of the decompressed second audio signal based on the identified audio compression configuration.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 14, 2024
    Date of Patent: February 25, 2025
    Assignee: Gracenote, Inc.
    Inventors: Zafar Rafii, Markus Cremer, Bongjun Kim
  • Patent number: 12230282
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus and articles of manufacture to identify sources of network streaming services are disclosed. An example apparatus includes a coding format identifier to identify, from a received first audio signal representing a decompressed second audio signal, an audio compression configuration used to compress a third audio signal to form the second audio signal, and a source identifier to identify a source of the second audio signal based on the identified audio compression configuration.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 11, 2023
    Date of Patent: February 18, 2025
    Assignee: The Nielsen Company (US), LLC
    Inventors: Zafar Rafii, Markus Cremer, Bongjun Kim
  • Patent number: 12232229
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture are disclosed to adjust device control information. The example apparatus comprises a light drive waveform generator to obtain metadata corresponding to media and generate device control information based on the metadata, the device control information to inform a lighting device to enable consecutive light pulses; an effect engine to apply an attack parameter and a decay parameter to consecutive light pulses corresponding to the device control information, the attack parameter and the decay parameter based on the metadata to affect a shape of the consecutive light pulses; and a color timeline generator to generate color information based on the metadata, the color information to inform the lighting device to change a color state.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 14, 2024
    Date of Patent: February 18, 2025
    Assignee: Gracenote, Inc.
    Inventors: Markus Kurt Cremer, Robert Coover, Zafar Rafii, Aneesh Vartakavi, Andreas Schmidt, Todd Hodges
  • Publication number: 20250016404
    Abstract: A method includes receiving, into a microphone of a portable computing device, audio from a surrounding environment of the portable computing device. The method also includes classifying, by the portable computing device, the received audio as containing media content or as containing no media content. Classifying the received audio as containing media content or as containing no media content comprises determining whether the audio defines content emitted from a media player in the surrounding environment of the portable computing device. The method further includes, based on the classifying, controlling by the portable computing device whether to engage in an audio-identification process for determining an identity of the media content.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 6, 2023
    Publication date: January 9, 2025
    Inventors: Zafar Rafii, Robert Coover, David Gish, Alexander Topchy, Christen V. Nielsen, Sadhana Gupta, Girish Khavasi, John Steven Stavropoulos
  • Publication number: 20240427819
    Abstract: Example systems and methods are audio identification based on data structure are disclosed. An example apparatus includes memory, and one or more processors to execute instructions to execute a constant Q transform on query time slices of query audio, binarize the constant Q transformed query time slices, execute a two-dimensional Fourier transform on query time windows within the binarized and constant Q transformed query time slices to generate two-dimensional Fourier transforms of the query time windows, sequentially order the two-dimensional Fourier transforms in a query data structure, and identify the query audio as a cover rendition of reference audio based on a comparison between the query data structure and a reference data structure associated with the reference audio.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 4, 2024
    Publication date: December 26, 2024
    Inventors: Zafar Rafii, Prem Seetharaman
  • Publication number: 20240395279
    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: Application
    Filed: July 31, 2024
    Publication date: November 28, 2024
    Inventors: Alexander Berrian, Todd J. Hodges, Robert Coover, Matthew James Wilkinson, Zafar Rafii
  • Publication number: 20240394304
    Abstract: Example systems and methods for automated cover song identification are disclosed. An example apparatus includes at least one memory, machine-readable instructions, and one or more processors to execute the machine-readable instructions to at least execute a constant Q transform on time slices of first audio data to output constant Q transformed time slices, binarize the constant Q transformed time slices to output binarized and constant Q transformed time slices, execute a two-dimensional Fourier transform on time windows within the binarized and constant Q transformed time slices to output two-dimensional Fourier transforms of the time windows, generate a reference data structure based on a sequential order of the two-dimensional Fourier transforms, store the reference data structure in a database, and identify a query data structure associated with query audio data as a cover rendition of the audio data based on a comparison of the query and reference data structures.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 31, 2024
    Publication date: November 28, 2024
    Inventors: Markus K. Cremer, Zafar Rafii, Robert Coover, Prem Seetharaman
  • Publication number: 20240363138
    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: Application
    Filed: July 10, 2024
    Publication date: October 31, 2024
    Inventors: Xiaochen Liu, Joseph P. Renner, Joshua E. Morris, Todd J. Hodges, Robert Coover, Zafar Rafii
  • Publication number: 20240331669
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus to extract a pitch-independent timbre attribute from a media signal are disclosed. An example apparatus includes an audio characteristic extractor to determine a logarithmic spectrum of an audio signal; transform the logarithmic spectrum of the audio signal into a frequency domain to generate a transform output; determine a magnitude of the transform output; and determine a timbre attribute of the audio signal based on an inverse transform of the magnitude.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 14, 2024
    Publication date: October 3, 2024
    Inventor: Zafar Rafii
  • Publication number: 20240329186
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture are disclosed to improve detection of audio signatures.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 11, 2024
    Publication date: October 3, 2024
    Inventor: Zafar Rafii
  • Patent number: 12105753
    Abstract: Example systems and methods for automated cover song identification are disclosed. An example apparatus includes at least one memory, machine-readable instructions, and one or more processors to execute the machine-readable instructions to at least execute a constant Q transform on time slices of first audio data to output constant Q transformed time slices, binarize the constant Q transformed time slices to output binarized and constant Q transformed time slices, execute a two-dimensional Fourier transform on time windows within the binarized and constant Q transformed time slices to output two-dimensional Fourier transforms of the time windows, generate a reference data structure based on a sequential order of the two-dimensional Fourier transforms, store the reference data structure in a database, and identify a query data structure associated with query audio data as a cover rendition of the audio data based on a comparison of the query and reference data structures.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 16, 2022
    Date of Patent: October 1, 2024
    Assignee: Gracenote, Inc.
    Inventors: Markus K. Cremer, Zafar Rafii, Robert Coover, Prem Seetharaman
  • Patent number: 12105754
    Abstract: Example systems and methods are audio identification based on data structure are disclosed. An example apparatus includes memory, and one or more processors to execute instructions to execute a constant Q transform on query time slices of query audio, binarize the constant Q transformed query time slices, execute a two-dimensional Fourier transform on query time windows within the binarized and constant Q transformed query time slices to generate two-dimensional Fourier transforms of the query time windows, sequentially order the two-dimensional Fourier transforms in a query data structure, and identify the query audio as a cover rendition of reference audio based on a comparison between the query data structure and a reference data structure associated with the reference audio.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 8, 2024
    Date of Patent: October 1, 2024
    Assignee: Gracenote, Inc.
    Inventors: Zafar Rafii, Prem Seetharaman
  • Patent number: 12094490
    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: June 1, 2021
    Date of Patent: September 17, 2024
    Assignee: Gracenote, Inc.
    Inventors: Xiaochen Liu, Joseph P. Renner, Joshua E. Morris, Todd J. Hodges, Robert Coover, Zafar Rafii
  • Patent number: 12094486
    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: June 15, 2023
    Date of Patent: September 17, 2024
    Assignee: Gracenote, Inc.
    Inventors: Alexander Berrian, Todd J. Hodges, Robert Coover, Matthew James Wilkinson, Zafar Rafii