A recording device, such as a video camera, emits audio watermarks (e.g., audible tones, inaudible tones) and records audio watermarks emitted by other recording devices. The audio watermarks provide information (e.g., data) such as an identifier of the camera and the identity of the operator. Audio watermarks may further include time information such as a timestamp indicating the time that the audio watermark was emitted by the camera. Audio watermarks may be emitted and recorded at intervals while recording an incident. A processing system, such as a digital video and audio processing system, may receive video information and recorded watermarks from multiple recording devices. The processing system may use the audio watermarks recorded by each recording device to determine which recording devices were in the vicinity of an incident. The processing system may also use the audio watermarks to align (e.g., synchronize) the video recorded by the various recording devices. Alignment of recorded video may permit synchronized playback of the recorded video from the various recording devices. Alignment may further identify at what point during an incident a recording device began and terminated recording.

Exemplary embodiments of systems and methods are provided for automatically creating time-based video metadata for a video source and a video playback mechanism. An automated logging process can be provided for receiving a digital video stream, analyzing one or more frames of the digital video stream, extracting a time from each of the one or more frames analyzed, and creating a clock index file associating a time with each of the one or more analyzed frames. The process can further provide for parsing one or more received data files, extracting time-based metadata from the one or more parsed data files, and determining a frame of the digital video stream that correlates to the extracted time based metadata.

Disclosed is an image processing method and apparatus. The method comprises: acquiring a reference time code such as a Coordinated Universal Time signal; displaying, on a display (110), a value based on the reference time code; imaging, by a sensor (200), the display (110), thereby generating an image of the display (110); processing, by an image processor, the image including generating, based on the reference time code, a time-stamp for the image; and comparing the value displayed on the display (110) in the image to the time-stamp to determine a latency value. The latency value may be used to correct time-stamps of images capture by the sensor (200) and determined by the image processor.

A recording device, such as a video camera, emits audio watermarks (e.g., audible tones, inaudible tones) and records audio watermarks emitted by other recording devices. The audio watermarks provide information (e.g., data) such as an identifier of the camera and the identity of the operate. Audio watermarks may further include time information such as a timestamp indicating the time that the audio watermark was emitted by the camera. Audio watermarks may be emitted and recorded at intervals while recording an incident. A processing system, such as a digital video and audio processing system, may receive video information and recorded watermarks from multiple recording devices. The processing system may use the audio watermarks recorded by each recording device to determine which recording devices were in the vicinity of an incident. The processing system may also use the audio watermarks to align (e.g., synchronize) the video recorded by the various recording devices. Alignment of recorded video may permit synchronized playback of the recorded video from the various recording devices. Alignment may further identify at what point during an incident a recording device began and terminated recording.

The present invention provides a testing system for a video and audio reproduction system, the testing system comprising a data source, comprising video and audio data for reproduction by the video and audio reproduction system, the video and audio data comprising unique marks in every video frame and every audio frame, a recording unit, configured to record a video stream and an audio stream generated by the video and audio reproduction system based on the video and audio data, and a test processor, configured to extract the unique marks from the recorded video stream and the recorded audio stream, and to verify if respective unique marks of simultaneous video frames and audio frames have been recorded by the recording unit simultaneously. Furthermore, the present invention provides a testing method, a computer program product, and a non-transitory computer readable data carrier.

Digital content, such as video, audio, multimedia, and similar files may be segmented at a determined frame resolution rate and analyzed to determine a fingerprint for each content segment. An identifier that uniquely identifies each content segment may be determined based on the fingerprint of the respective content segment. The identifier may be associated with data relating to the content segment and with one or more identifiers that uniquely identify other content segments of the content. The content segment identifiers may be used to construct a content segment sequencing representation that represents the playback of the content segments in playback order.

There is provided a method of detecting and synchronizing audio/video signals. At least one audio signal is detected by means of at least one microphone unit. Timestamps are generated and stored together with the detected audio signal in the microphone unit. An optical synchronization signal is output by the microphone unit, wherein the optical synchronization signal contains optical timestamps which are respectively associated with one of the generated timestamps. At least one video signal is detected by means of at least one camera unit. The video signal at least partially has the optical synchronization signal output by the microphone unit. The optical timestamps contained in the optical synchronization signal are extracted. The video signal and the audio signal are synchronized on the basis of the timestamps in the audio signal and the optical timestamps extracted from the detected optical synchronization signal.

Exemplary embodiments of systems and methods are provided for automatically creating time-based video metadata for a video source and a video playback mechanism. An automated logging process can be provided for receiving a digital video stream, analyzing one or more frames of the digital video stream, extracting a time from each of the one or more frames analyzed, and creating a clock index file associating a time with each of the one or more analyzed frames. The process can further provide for parsing one or more received data files, extracting time-based metadata from the one or more parsed data files, and determining a frame of the digital video stream that correlates to the extracted time based metadata.

A measurement system is provided for measuring a change, of a device under test, between a first video sequence having a first video quality and a second video sequence having a second video quality. The measurement system comprises a video signal source configured to provide the first video sequence and the second video sequence, wherein the first video sequence is identified by a first identification indicator and the second video sequence is identified by a second identification indicator. The measurement system further comprises a detecting device configured to detect a change from the first video sequence to the second video sequence based on a difference between the first identification indicator and the second identification indicator.

The present invention provides a testing system for a video and audio reproduction system, the testing system comprising a data source, comprising video and audio data for reproduction by the video and audio reproduction system, the video and audio data comprising unique marks in every video frame and every audio frame, a recording unit, configured to record a video stream and an audio stream generated by the video and audio reproduction system based on the video and audio data, and a test processor, configured to extract the unique marks from the recorded video stream and the recorded audio stream, and to verify if respective unique marks of simultaneous video frames and audio frames have been recorded by the recording unit simultaneously. Furthermore, the present invention provides a testing method, a computer program product, and a non-transitory computer readable data carrier.