Multi-media content identification using multi-level content signature correlation and fast similarity search

A method to detect a query sequence of audio and video signatures in a data base of audio and video signatures, the method comprising:

• searching the database of audio and video signatures in response to a query sequence of audio and video signatures using a hash index for each query signature;
• retrieving a set of database signatures that are similar as determined by a distance measure of the signatures to the query sequence of audio and video signatures in response to use of the hash index for each query signature to select a database entry;
• performing a correlation in time between corresponding pairs of signatures from the set of database signatures and the query sequence of audio and video signatures;
• and
• identifying a matching sequence between query and reference if the correlation in time generates a score above a determined threshold.

A method of generating a likelihood score for a pair of query media frame content items and correlating between matching frames of the query and reference media content frames, the method comprising:

• generating a correlation score based on an individual frame or view similarity score, wherein the frame correlation score can be generated from a correlation between multiple signatures of different features of the query and original frame;
• generating a time correlation using relative differences in frame numbers of the original video and the query video;
• and
• generating a correlation between the original video and the query video by using a correlation of individual frames alone and without using a time sequence in the query media frame content and in the reference media content frames, wherein the reference media content frames is an entry in a reference media database.

A method of performing very fast sequence correlation comprising:

• performing a fast similarity search using a direct hash index of signatures to identify the likely matching chapters of the query and reference;
• performing sequence correlation on a reference chapter and query chapter;
• performing the fast similarity search and correlation on separate partitions or servers in parallel;
• thresholding the detected sequences to eliminate sequences;
• and
• selecting the best matches.