Scheme for determining the locations and timing of advertisements and other insertions in media

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing one or more computer programs adapted to cause a processor based system to execute steps comprising:

• analyzing an image;
• identifying one or more faces in the image using a face recognition technique;
• determining a size of each of the identified faces;
• designating at least one of the identified faces collectively as a first area of interest based on the determined sizes of the identified faces and whether a face is a certain proportion to another face;
• and
• determining whether an insertion area exists in the image where additional content can be inserted without obstructing the first area of interest;
• wherein the step of designating at least one of the identified faces collectively as a first area of interest based on the determined sizes of the identified faces and whether a face is a certain proportion to another face comprises:
• selecting a largest one of the identified faces and only ones of the identified faces that are not smaller than a certain percentage of the largest one of the identified faces.

A method, comprising:

• analyzing a first sequence of frames of content;
• identifying one or more faces in a scene depicted by the first sequence of frames using a face recognition technique;
• determining a size of each of the identified faces;
• designating at least one of the identified faces collectively as a first area of interest based on the determined sizes of the identified faces and whether a face is a certain proportion to another face, wherein the certain proportion is defined by a threshold setting that is used to select faces for inclusion in the first area of interest;
• determining whether an insertion area exists in the scene where additional content can be inserted without obstructing the first area of interest;
• determining whether the insertion area can be divided into two or more regions based on color;
• dividing the insertion area into two or more regions based on color;
• and
• inserting the additional content into one of the two or more regions such that the additional content is completely contained within the one of the two or more regions.

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing one or more computer programs adapted to cause a processor based system to execute steps comprising:

• playing a first sequence of frames, wherein the first sequence of frames includes an advertisement inserted into a scene depicted by at least some of the frames in the first sequence of frames;
• and
• playing a second sequence of frames after the first sequence of frames;
• wherein the advertisement was inserted into the scene in the first sequence of frames by a process that includes,
• identifying one or more faces in the scene using a face recognition technique;
• determining a size of each of the identified faces;
• designating at least one of the identified faces collectively as a first area of interest based on the determined sizes of the identified faces and whether a face is a certain proportion to another face, wherein the certain proportion is defined by a threshold setting that is used to select faces for inclusion in the first area of interest;
• determining whether an insertion area exists in the scene where the advertisement can be inserted without obstructing the first area of interest;
• determining whether the insertion area can be divided into two or more regions based on color;
• dividing the insertion area into two or more regions based on color;
• and
• inserting the advertisement into one of the two or more regions such that the advertisement is completely contained within the one of the two or more regions.