Methods and apparatus to detect commercial advertisements associated with media presentations are disclosed. An example method involves receiving a video frame and detecting a change in box-formatting between the video frame and a subsequent video frame. A transition between the video frame and the subsequent video frame is indicated as a commercial advertisement transition based on the detected change in box-formatting.

There is provided an image archiving method for use with a writing target, comprising the steps of receiving a series of captured images of the writing target, detecting difference between first and second candidate received images separated by a predetermined period of time, where additive differences are indicative of writing and subtractive differences are indicative of erasure; upon detecting subtractive difference, temporarily retaining a last candidate image captured prior to the detection, and detecting whether the subtractive difference relative to the retained image exceeds a subtraction threshold amount; and if so, then storing the retained image.

Techniques are disclosed for overcoming communication lag between interactive operations among devices in a streaming session. According to the techniques, a first device streaming video content to a second device and an annotation is entered to a first frame being displayed at the second device, which is communicated back to the first device. Responsive to a communication that identifies the annotation, a first device may identify an element of video content from the first frame to which the annotation applies and determine whether the identified element is present in a second frame of video content currently displayed at the first terminal. If so, the first device may display the annotation with the second frame in a location where the identified element is present. If not, the first device may display the annotation via an alternate technique.

Recorded video information is managed by annotation markers. The recorded video information is annotated with at least one marker and the annotated video information is saved in an electronically searchable file.

A CM section within a broadcast program is detected with high accuracy. A CM section detection device 100 includes: a CM section detection unit 120 that detects one or more CM sections by comparing a volume of a broadcast program with a volume threshold, and generates detected CM sections representing the CM sections that have been detected; and a CM section correction unit 140 that corrects the detected CM sections based on a sponsorship credit display section that is a section which is included in the broadcast program and in which a sponsorship credit indicating a sponsor of the broadcast program is displayed.

Systems and methods are provided that includes the processing of video material for reducing video material to temporal segments in which a significant movement of an object is recorded. The systems and methods may be used for the observation of animals.

In one aspect, an example method includes (i) presenting first media content from a first source; (ii) encountering a trigger to switch from presenting the first media content from the first source to presenting second media content from a second source; (iii) determining a first loudness level of the first media content; (iv) determining a second loudness level of the second media content; (v) based on a difference between the first loudness level and the second loudness level, adjusting a loudness level of the second media content so as to generate modified media content having a third loudness level that is different from the second loudness level; and (vi) responsive to encountering the trigger, presenting the modified media content having the third loudness level.

In one aspect, an example method includes (i) presenting first media content from a first source; (ii) encountering a trigger to switch from presenting the first media content from the first source to presenting second media content from a second source; (iii) determining a first loudness level of the first media content; (iv) determining a second loudness level of the second media content; (v) based on a difference between the first loudness level and the second loudness level, adjusting a loudness level of the second media content so as to generate modified media content having a third loudness level that is different from the second loudness level; and (vi) responsive to encountering the trigger, presenting the modified media content having the third loudness level.

The disclosed computer-implemented method may include, for a current frame of a sequence of video frames, determining a frame type label of the current frame. The method may include, in response to determining that the current frame is labeled as an intra frame (I-frame), decoding the current frame and comparing the decoded frame to historical I-frame data. The method may also include, in response to the comparison satisfying a shot-change threshold, flagging the current frame as a shot-change frame, and in response to flagging the current frame as the shot-change frame, storing the current frame for a subsequent shot-change detection. The method may further include updating, based on flagged shot-change frames, shot boundaries for the sequence of video frames. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.

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.