Media Channel Identification and Action with Multi-Match Detection and Disambiguation Based on Matching with Differential Reference-Fingerprint Feature

A system comprising:

• a network communication interface;
• a processing unit;
• non-transitory data storage;
• and
• program instructions stored in the non-transitory data storage and executable by the processing unit to carry out operations including:
• receiving from a media presentation device, via the network communication interface, a query fingerprint of media content being rendered by the media presentation device,
• determining that the received fingerprint matches multiple reference fingerprints each corresponding with a different respective channel,
• responsive to determining that the received fingerprint matches the multiple reference fingerprints each corresponding with a different respective channel, performing disambiguation by (i) identifying a fingerprint feature that differs as between the multiple reference fingerprints and (ii) determining that the query fingerprint matches just one of the reference fingerprints as to the identified fingerprint feature, whereby the disambiguation establishes that the media presentation device is receiving the media content on the channel corresponding with the one reference fingerprint, and
• taking action based on the establishing that the single channel carries the media content being rendered by the media presentation device.

A method comprising:

• receiving by a computing system from a media presentation device a first query fingerprint of video content being rendered by the media presentation device;
• determining by the computing system that the first query fingerprint matches multiple reference fingerprints corresponding with multiple channels;
• responsive to at least determining that the first query fingerprint matches the multiple reference fingerprints corresponding with the multiple channels, the computing system performing disambiguation by (i) identifying a video frame region that defines a difference between the channels corresponding with the multiple first reference fingerprints, (ii) requesting and receiving from the media presentation device a second query fingerprint specifically focused on the identified video frame region, and (iii) determining that the second query fingerprint matches a reference fingerprint of the video frame region of just one of the multiple channels, whereby the disambiguation establishes that the media presentation device is receiving the video content on the one channel;
• and
• taking action based on the establishing that the media presentation device is receiving the video content on the one channel.