A method and an apparatus are used to target interactive virtual objects to subscribers in a television delivery system. Programs are selected and virtual object locations are defined in the selected programs. The virtual objects available for targeting are categorized and the categories are correlated to subscriber information to determine the optimum targeting of the virtual objects. The virtual objects may be targeted based on individual subscriber information or on information related to groups of subscribers. When a frame of a program includes a virtual object location, a default or an alternate virtual object is displayed. The virtual object location may change over space or time. The virtual object may be interactive, and may be used to link a subscriber to a remote location, such as an Internet web site. An operations center or a cable headend may generate a group assignment plan that assigns the subscribers' television terminals to groups, based on factors such as area of dominant influence and household income. A retrieval plan is then generated that instructs the television terminals to select the desired virtual object for display. The television terminals record which virtual objects were displayed, and report this information to the cable headends and the operations center. The reported information is used to generate billing for commercial advertisers, and to analyze viewer watching habits. Interactive virtual objects are received by the television terminal with directions on actions to be taken upon selection of the interactive virtual object. Actions may result in the initiation of processes locally at the television terminal, or communication with a remote site for the initiation of processes to be performed remotely. The invention uses upstream data reception hardware, databases and processing hardware and software, and corresponding features in the televisions to accomplish these functions.

Digital rights management (DRM) of video data is selectively applied to video data by a video processing system that receives a video, comprising a number of frames, and processes at least one frame from the video to determine the contents of the video. The digital rights management for the video is then configured based on the contents of the video.

A portable terminal device and a method for operating the same are provided. The portable terminal device includes a communicator configured to perform communication with an external device, a display configured to display a same image as an image displayed on the external device, an inputter configured to receive an input of a selection command, and a controller configured to perform an operation corresponding to an object included in the image at a time when the selection command is input.

Systems and methods are provided for a content distribution system, packaged as executable instructions stored on a non-transitory computer readable medium. The system includes a cross-platform video player, implemented as machine executable instructions executable on a host computer having any of a plurality of different operating environments and a video comprising a plurality of video frames. The system further includes a library of content items associated with the video. The library of content items includes a plurality of content items and metadata relating each of the content items to associated spatial locations in at least one frame of the video. Each of the cross-platform video player, the video, and the library of content items are packaged as a single cross-platform executable file.

Various systems and methods for processing video are described herein. A system comprises a storage device; a processor; and a memory, including instructions, which when executed on the processor, cause the processor to: receive a time interval, the time interval divided into a plurality of segments; access from the storage device, a plurality of video clips, each of the plurality of video clips including a timestamp; for each of the plurality of segments in the time interval, determine a candidate video clip of the plurality of video clips, the candidate video clip including a subject in the candidate video clip; compose an output video that includes the candidate video clip of each segment of the plurality of segments; and output the output video to a display.

An apparatus and method for verifying broadcast content object identification based on web data. The apparatus includes: a web data processor configured to collect and process web data related to broadcast content and create content knowledge information by tagging the web data to the broadcast content; a content knowledge information storage portion configured to store the content knowledge information; and an object identification verifier configured to verify a result of identifying an object contained in the broadcast content, using the content knowledge information.

A video stream is obtained that includes at least one video stream image. The video stream is to be sent to one or more subscribers. Based on the obtaining the video stream, non-pixel data is retrieved. A first critical object in the video stream is determined. The determination is based on the obtaining the video stream and further based on the non-pixel data. The first critical object is represented by a first plurality of pixels. The first plurality of pixels is located within the at least one video stream image. A first prioritization of one or more network packets of the video stream is generated. The one or more network packets contain the first plurality of pixels. The first prioritization is generated based on determining the first critical object in the video stream.

Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, for example, a method that includes obtaining, by a processing system including a processor, video frames over a network; the processing system uses a machine learning algorithm to identify in each frame a first region comprising a natural image and a second region comprising a synthetic graphic image. The processing system separates the natural image from the synthetic graphic image to generate a natural video and a graphics video, encodes the natural video, and processes the graphics video to generate instructions for rendering graphic images at a client system. The client system performs a decoding procedure for the encoded video, a rendering procedure for client-side graphics in accordance with the instructions, and a compositing procedure to obtain a presentable video stream including the natural image and a client-side graphic corresponding to the synthetic graphic image. Other embodiments are disclosed.

A method or system for supporting dynamic construction of a user selected sub-region (e.g., viewport or region of interest) from other sub-regions of a reference media presentation encodes reference media presentation as component tracks. A streaming decoder receives a streaming media file of the reference media presentation and displays an arbitrarily selected sub-region of the reference media presentation. The streaming media file has a derived track that (i) references one or more of the plurality of component tracks and (ii) specifies a set of operations for constructing media samples based on the media samples of the referenced component tracks. The streaming decoder provides media samples for the selected sub-region by retrieving the referenced component tracks and performing the set of operations specified by the derived track.

A system and a method for an automatic video reconstruction to improve scene quality using a dynamic point of interest by finding a point or line of interest are provided. The method includes dividing a first video into a plurality of first frames; determining a first object of interest in the plurality of first frames; converting the plurality of first frames into a plurality of second frames based on the first object of interest; and reconstructing the first video into a second video based on the plurality of second frames.