Targeted messages are sent to users of social networking system (SNS) based on the detection of airings of advertisements in time-based media. This approach allows advertisers to leverage their investment in, for example, television advertising by sending advertisements to SNS users who have likely seen the advertisements within shows that they have expressed interest in the context of a SNS. Time-based media streams are analyzed to detect the airings of advertisements within those streams. In one embodiment, SNS content items are received regarding individual users. Based on references in those content items between users and their interests, targeted messages may be sent to users. In another embodiment, targeted messages are sent to SNS users based on the airing of advertisements and targeting criteria provided by advertisers.

A noise removal device includes a noise remover, a data compressor, a data decompressor, a stillness detector, and an output selector. For a second frame succeeding a first frame, the noise remover performs noise removal on input image data of the second frame to generate noise removed data, based on the input image data of the second frame and decompressed data of the first frame. For the second frame, the output selector: selects the input image data as output image data, when the stillness detector detects that the input image data is data of a still image; and selects the noise removed data as the output image data, when the stillness detector detects that the input image data is not the data of the still image.

A motion picture camera arrangement comprises a motion picture camera and a display device, wherein the motion picture camera has an image sensor for taking images at a variable frame rate and wherein the display device displays the taken images at a settable display rate. A method of operating the motion picture camera arrangement comprises the steps of: selecting a frame rate; determining a setting value for the display rate of the display device, wherein the setting value corresponds, in dependence on the selected frame rate, either to the selected frame rate or to a product or quotient of the selected frame rate and a whole-number multiplier or divisor; operating the image sensor at the selected frame rate; and operating the display device using the determined setting value for the display rate.

Methods and systems for compressing video content are presented. The methods and systems include analyzing a sequence of media frames stored in the memory device and calculating a displacement level of each of the media frames. The displacement level indicates how different each of the media frames is to a previous media frame. The sequence of media frames is divided into a plurality of cuts where each cut ends at a media frame having a substantially high displacement level. Frames to be removed from the sequence of media frames are identified in each cut based upon the frame's displacement level. The identified frames are then removed.

In one example embodiment, thumbnail management for video content includes detecting a plurality of scene change points from the video content, determining a number of analysis windows based on the plurality of detected scene change points, selecting a frame in each of the analysis windows, and storing the selected frame as the thumbnail for the respective analysis window.

The disclosure provides an image recognition method and apparatus. The image recognition method may include obtaining a first frame image of which a frame type is known, and a second frame image and a third frame image of which frame types are unknown from an image frame sequence. The method may further include predicting a pixel sequence of the second frame image according to the first frame image and the third frame image. The method may further include calculating a pixel error according to a second pixel sequence of the second frame image and the predicted pixel sequence. The second pixel sequence includes pixel values of the pixels in the second frame image. The method may further include recognizing a frame type of the second frame image or the third frame image according to the pixel error.

The invention provides a method and apparatus for detecting a gradual transition picture in a bitstream. The method comprises: accessing a bitstream including encoded pictures; and determining a gradual transition picture in the bitstream using information from the bitstream without decoding the bitstream to derive pixel information.

The disclosure relates to a method of processing a sequence of image frames to reduce its length. One implementation may involve extracting coefficients (e.g., Discrete Cosine Transform coefficients) from components of individual frames, and comparing the resulting coefficients for sequential frames to identify frames having the least change from a prior frame. Also, scene change values for each frame may be calculated and placed in a sorted list to facilitate identification of frames for removal. Frame removal may be conducted in rounds, where a group of pictures (GOP) may only have one frame removed for any given round.

A method of scanning content comprises receiving an input signal indicating that content being displayed is to be scanned, sensing a duration of the received input signal, and scanning the content at a rate based at least in part on the sensed duration of the received input.

A pan/tilt/zoom (PTZ) camera based video reproducing method and a PTZ camera based video reproducing apparatus are disclosed. The present disclosure in some embodiments provides PTZ camera based video reproducing method and apparatus that recognize, from a plurality of preset videos captured by a PTZ camera, the preset videos from the same imaged location, select the recognized preset videos, and reproduce the video images of choice.