# US 8,789,084 B2 · Identifying commercial breaks in broadcast media > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 8,789,084 B2 - Document ID: US8789084B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 13/096,977 - Filed: 2011-04-28 - Published: 2011-08-18 - Granted: 2014-07-22 - Earliest claimed: 2009-05-27 - Assignees: Spot411 Technologies, Inc. - Applicants: Hans M. Glitsch; Ajay Shah - Inventors: Hans M. Glitsch; Ajay Shah - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US8789084B2 ## CPC - H04N 21/2407: {Monitoring of transmitted content, e.g. distribution time, number of downloads (arrangements for monitoring programmes for broadcast or for distribution combined with broadcast H04H20/14)} - G06F 16/433: {using audio data} - G06F 16/4393: {Multimedia presentations, e.g. slide shows, multimedia albums} - H04N 21/4394: {involving operations for analysing the audio stream, e.g. detecting features or characteristics in audio streams (arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of audio in broadcast systems H04H60/58)} - H04N: PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION - G06F: ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING (computer systems based on specific computational models G06N) ## Abstract An audio channel of a time-based media presentation provides a basis for synchronizing to the presentation across a variety of platforms independent of when and where the presentation is being viewed. By pre-processing the media into a series of non-unique hashes, and similarly processing an audio stream of the media captured at a client device, a comparison can be made that yields an accurate time offset within the presentation. The comparison may usefully be performed over a data network using a server that hosts data from the pre-processed media, and a variety of applications may be deployed on the client device based on the resulting synchronization. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A method comprising: receiving a plurality of hashes of audio content over a data network from a plurality of client devices; identifying a number of client devices from the plurality of client devices exposed to a particular television broadcast based upon a similarity of a first group of concurrent hashes from the number of client devices; detecting a deviation in a second group of concurrent hashes among the number of client devices; based upon the deviation, inferring a commercial break in which a first group of the number of client devices has changed channel and a second group of the number of client devices have stayed on a commercial break in the particular television broadcast; and analyzing averaged data for a third group of concurrent hashes from the number of client devices to determine whether a commercial being played to one or more of the number of client devices is a local commercial or a network-wide commercial. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1 further comprising identifying a channel change in proximity to one of the plurality of client devices based upon a variation in the ones of the plurality of hashes received from the one of the plurality of client devices and other ones of the plurality of hashes received concurrently from other ones of the plurality of client devices. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1 further comprising inferring a geographic proximity among two or more of the plurality of client devices based upon a similarity of concurrent ones of the plurality of hashes received from the two or more of the plurality of client devices during the commercial break. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1 wherein the plurality of client devices include one or more of a laptop computer, a notebook computer, a netbook computer, a cellular phone, and a personal digital device. ### Claim 5 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1 wherein each one of the plurality of hashes includes a processed representation of digital samples of the audio content captured by each one of the plurality of client devices. ### Claim 6 A computer program product embodied in a non-transitory computer readable medium, the computer program product comprising computer executable code that, when executing on one or more computing devices, performs the steps of: receiving a plurality of hashes of audio content over a data network from a plurality of client devices; identifying a number of client devices from the plurality of client devices exposed to a particular television broadcast based upon a similarity of a first group of concurrent hashes from the number of client devices; detecting a deviation in a second group of concurrent hashes among the number of client devices; inferring a commercial break in which a first group of the number of client devices has changed channel and a second group of the number of client devices have stayed on a commercial break in the particular television broadcast based upon the deviation; and analyzing averaged data for a third group of concurrent hashes from the number of client devices to determine whether a commercial being played to one or more of the number of client devices is a local commercial or a network-wide commercial. ### Claim 7 (depends on 6) The computer program product of claim 6 further comprising code that performs the step of identifying a channel change in proximity to one of the plurality of client devices based upon a variation in the ones of the plurality of hashes received from the one of the plurality of client devices and other ones of the plurality of hashes received concurrently from other ones of the plurality of client devices. ### Claim 8 (depends on 6) The computer program product of claim 6 further comprising code that performs the step of inferring a geographic proximity among two or more of the plurality of client devices based upon a similarity of concurrent ones of the plurality of hashes received from the two or more of the plurality of client devices during the commercial break. ### Claim 9 (depends on 6) The computer program product of claim 6 wherein the plurality of client devices include one or more of a laptop computer, a notebook computer, a netbook computer, a cellular phone, and a personal digital device. ### Claim 10 (depends on 6) The computer program product of claim 6 wherein each one of the plurality of hashes includes a processed representation of digital samples of the audio content captured by each one of the plurality of client devices.