JP2004511838A - Method and system for finding matches in a database for waveforms - Google Patents

Abstract

A method and system for finding a match in a database for waveforms United States Patent Application 20070135157 Kind Code: A1 A digitally sampled waveform for determining whether there are records in a database corresponding to a file containing the waveform. Are used to form the amplitude signature of the waveform. An amplitude signature is generated by counting the number of occurrences within a segment of the waveform in each of a plurality of amplitude bands or slots. The amplitude signature of the waveform performs a fuzzy comparison with the amplitude signature in the database. If one or more potential matches are found, a more accurate comparison is performed. This technique is used on compact discs (CDs), for example, by taking sample segments of the first, middle, and last 5 seconds of each track, with 558 of a 1/75 second frame recorded on a sample segment of the CD. The amplitude of the waveform can be detected in each of the samples. The CD amplitude signature may be formed from approximately 2000 amplitude bands or slots from the lowest amplitude to the highest amplitude of the waveform by accumulating the occurrence of the signal in each amplitude slot for every sample segment of the CD. Good. The amplitude signature can be used to identify multiple potential matches obtained based on the table of contents (TOC) data for the CD indicating the number of tracks and the length of each track.

Description

(Related patents)
This application is a divisional application of US Patent Application Serial No. 08 / 838,082, issued July 16, 1999 as US Patent No. 5,987,525, incorporated herein by reference, July 1999. It is a continuation-in-part of U.S. Patent Application Serial No. 09 / 354,164 filed on the 16th.
[0001]
(Background of the Invention)
(Field of the Invention)
The present invention is about finding records in a database, and specifically finding waveform matches in a database of records showing waveforms.
[0002]
(Description of the prior art)
Over the past few years, online services have experienced explosive growth and have become one major form of entertainment. In parallel with this new entertainment, many conventional forms, such as music recordings, continue to be consumed on a large scale.
[0003]
The traditional experience in music recording is to get together in one room and listen in small groups. The music acoustically fills the room, but has little associated video content, and virtually no track to play, such as setting the volume or using an audio equalizer, There is only limited interactivity with the recording, making a difference. This traditional experience is almost 100 years ago at 78 r. p. Go back to the beginning of music recording.
[0004]
The traditional production of music recordings complements the traditional experience of recording. Recordings are performed in a number of recording sessions, carefully mixed and edited, and released to the general public. Recorded on fixed media at that time, today on music CDs, the goal is to provide as much as possible a final acoustic experience designed by songwriters, musicians, producers and recording engineers. It is to record faithfully.
[0005]
Music videos have complemented the traditional experience of music recording by associating them with video content on tracks on such media. However, music videos, among others, have been broadcast without solving all the problems associated with their lack of user control, and they have not contributed to interactivity or consumer participation.
[0006]
Online services offer the opportunity to enrich the experience associated with music recordings. The present invention relates to computer programs, systems, and protocols that solve this problem.
[0007]
(Summary of the Invention)
Accordingly, one object of the present invention is to provide computer programs, systems, and protocols that allow producers to distribute entertainment that complements music recordings via online services such as the Internet. It is a further object of the present invention to provide a computer program, system and protocol in which such complementary entertainment is meaningfully interactive to the consumer, thereby enabling the consumer to also experience as a creator. It is to be.
[0008]
It is a further object of the present invention that it is designed to achieve the integration of existing environments and programs, especially on the Internet, while retaining the flexibility to adapt to the further developments of online service standards. To achieve.
[0009]
In one aspect of the invention, software is provided that allows a computer program running on a remote host computer to control a compact disc (CD) player, DVD player, etc. on a user's computer (for convenience, a "CD player"). The term will also refer to DVD players and similar devices.) The software is designed so that the remote host computer starts operating on the CD player and is aware of the operation initiated by the user by means of other controls such as buttons on the front panel of the CD player or another CD player control program. I have. This aspect of the invention is a building block for providing complementary entertainment to music recordings where these recordings are fixed as the current general form of audio CDs.
[0010]
In a second aspect of the present invention, video content, including interactive content, may be delivered on an online service so as to synchronize with the delivery of the content from the music recording. Such video content may, for example, be synchronized with the performance of an audio CD on the user's computer. Video content is thematically linked to music recordings, such as music videos.
[0011]
In a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of assigning a unique identifier to a music recording comprising a number of tracks. The unique identifier is useful for delivering video content in conjunction with audio CD performance, in that the software that delivers the video content can verify that the audio CD is the true correct CD that the video content supports. A useful supplement. If the video content is designed to accompany, for example, the Rosary Sonatas of the Heinrich Ignats Franz Biber, the user's player CD will be the Mary Poppins of the movie Mary Poppins. Without a soundtrack it would probably not work. The unique identifier also uses the CD as a key to access the premium web area. Further, the unique identifier directs the user to an area of the web corresponding to the CD on the user's machine.
[0012]
In a fourth aspect of the present invention, a very popular online service, commonly referred to as a "chat room", may be extended by a link to a music recording that is being listened to by everyone in the chat room. . Chat room experiences, such as those that exist today in online services, are unrealistic when compared to traditional, direct, face-to-face, social encounters with an identifiable environment. The only common experience of today's chat users is chatting words that fly around on a computer screen, perhaps the user's icon ("authorization") or other video content that occupies a small space on the screen. The use of music recordings in conjunction with chat rooms opens up the possibility of restoring the degree of shared atmosphere of traditional social encounters. In addition, music recordings provide a central point from which chat searchers can gather with a shared interest in a particular type of recording.
[0013]
(Description of a preferred embodiment)
The preferred embodiment of the present invention operates on the WWW (World Wide Web). The software implementation environment provided by the WWW is described in numerous books, for example, HTML 3.2 and CGI Unleased (1996) by John December & Mark Ginsburg. WWW is a Bermers-Lee et al. Hypertext Transfer Protocol-a network called HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol), described in HTTP / 1.0 (Internet Request For Comments, No. 1945, 1996). Based on protocol. The HTTP protocol is described by Douglas E. As described in Internetworking with TCP / IP (3rd Edition, 1995) by Commer, it must be run on a general connection-oriented protocol, which is now generally TCP / IP. No. However, the invention described herein is not limited to HTTP running on any particular type of network software or hardware. The principles of the present invention also apply to other protocols for accessing remote information that may become comparable to or replace HTTP.
[0014]
As shown in FIG. 1, a web user sits in front of his computer and runs a computer program called a browser. Browsers send HTTP requests to other computers, called servers. In this request, specific data, referred to as resources available on the server, is referenced by a uniform resource locator (URL). In addition, supra. The character string of a specific format defined in the A URL includes both the identification of the server and the identification of specific data in the server. In response to this request, the server responds to the user's browser, and the browser responds to these responses, generally by displaying several types of content to the user.
[0015]
The content portion of the response may be a "web page" represented by Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). The language can represent content consisting of bitmap format images (also known as anchors and hyperlinks) and text interspersed with links. The link is a further URL link where the browser may send further requests at the direction of the user.
[0016]
The response may also include more complex commands that are interpreted by the browser, for example, commands that result in a moving image. HTML itself does not define complex commands, but rather those commands are considered to belong to individually defined scripting languages. Two of the most common script languages are Java (registered trademark) Script and VBScript.
[0017]
In addition to extending the functionality of the browser with code written in a scripting language, it is also possible to extend the functionality of the browser with compiled code. Such compiled code is called a "plug-in." The exact protocol for writing a plug-in depends on the particular browser. The plug-in for Microsoft's browser is called Active X Controls.
[0018]
Plugins can be very complex. A plug-in that may be advantageously used in accordance with the present invention is Shockwave by Macromedia. Thereby, the moving image that is part of the server response is downloaded and played by the user. Shockwave defines its own scripting language called Lingo. The Lingo script is included in a downloadable movie that the Shockwave plug-in can play. A common format for Shockwave motion pictures is a timeline consisting of a series of frames with a number of video objects appearing, moving, and disappearing at specific frames in the timeline. To achieve more complex effects in Shockwave animation, Lingo scripts may be used in addition to certain visual objects.
[0019]
The preferred embodiment of the present invention uses a plug-in, called a command plug-in, that provides the scripting language with the ability to command the performance of a music recording in detail. Command plugins should provide at least the following basic functions:
(1) Start and stop playing
(2) Know the current song and position in the track
(3) Search for songs and positions in the track
(4) Set the volume
(5) Obtain information about the CD (for example, the number of tracks, its length, pause between tracks)
(6) Obtain information on the performance of the CD drive
Other features may also be provided and are limited only by what the basic operating system services can provide.
[0020]
The command plugin is preferably C ⁺⁺ Written in a conventional programming language such as The plug-in should conform to the plug-in's existing standards, such as those required by Microsoft's Active X object. In order to obtain information and perform the functions that the command plug-in makes available to the scripting language, the command plug-in relies on the ability to provide control and information regarding the music recording being performed. These features depend on the exact source of the recording. As in the presently preferred embodiment, the recording is being played on an audio CD in a computer CD player and the browser is running on Microsoft® Windows® 3.1 or Windows® 95 In these cases, these functions are MCI functions that form part of the Win32 application programming interface. These features are documented, for example, in the Microsoft Win32 Programmer's Reference. The different functions may be provided by a streaming audio receiver, such as a receiver that takes in audio encoded in a suitable audio encoding format, such as MPEG, that enters the user's computer via a network connection.
[0021]
An important point when referring to the implementation of a command plug-in is that the action to perform, such as a search, takes about one second. It is not desirable for a command plugin to retain control of the machine during the second, and in long runs the plugin will relinquish control of the machine to the browser and be used in a common scripting language It is important to report the result of the operation via the asynchronous event handle capability.
[0022]
General knowledge of the functions provided by the command plug-in, how to write the plug-in (e.g., how to write an Active X object), and related application programming interfaces for controlling the performance of music recordings (e.g., Given the above summary of Win32 MCI), those skilled in the art can easily and without undue experimentation develop a working command plug-in. For this reason, further details on how the command plug-in is executed will not be described here.
[0023]
The presence of a command plug-in that provides the above-described functionality through a scripting language is the basis on which entertainment that complements music recordings may be built. Above all, on this basis, it is possible to devise a method of synchronizing the display of the video content by means of a scripting language with events occurring on an audio CD.
[0024]
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the synchronization of the video content to the audio CD proceeds as follows. The video content is downloaded from the server, provided to the user by a Shockwave plug-in, and displayed as a Shockwave movie. This download may be done before the video is displayed, or, if the user's connection to the network is fast enough to support the download at a reasonable speed, the video will be displayed simultaneously. You may. Download is a function provided by the Shockwave plug-in itself.
[0025]
When a Shockwave movie is played, the Lingo script is executed each time the frame ends displaying. The Lingo script contains a description of the relationship that should exist between the frames of the movie and the segments of the music recording identified by the number of tracks and the time. The Lingo script uses the above command plug-in to determine the track and time at which the audio CD will play. Then, the description is referred to in order to determine which frame of the moving image corresponds to the audio CD portion. If the current frame is not one of these frames, the Lingo script resets the timeline of the movie, and the movie starts playing at the frame corresponding to the current position on the audio CD. This may cause delays in the current location of the CD, for example, due to delays in downloading from the network, lack of a cycle in which the user's computer plays the video at full speed, or because the user downloads the CD quickly. If so, video content can be used.
[0026]
In a variation of this synchronization algorithm (shown in FIG. 2), the frames of the video are arranged in groups of adjacent frames. A correspondence between each group of such frames and a particular segment of the audio recording is established (box 200 in FIG. 2). At the end of each frame of the movie, the audio performance position is determined (box 210). A test is performed to determine whether the audio playing position is within the segment of the recording corresponding to the group of frames to which the next consecutive frame belongs (box 215). If the audio performance position is within that segment, playback of the animation continues with the next frame (box 230). If the audio playing position is not within the segment, playback of the moving image proceeds to the frame corresponding to the position where the audio is (boxes 220 and 225).
[0027]
A further aspect of the present invention is the ability to provide a technique for establishing a unique identifier for a recording that may be stored on mass storage by utilizing a command plug-in. Besides mass storage devices, integrated circuits, magnetic media (eg hard disks) or other media, or removable media such as audio CDs, portable flash memories and memory sticks ^TM An integrated circuit memory such as that accessed by a computer's CD-ROM drive, such as an MP3 player / recorder or other device accessible to the medium. The unique identifier may also be based on the number and length of tracks (measured in frames, i.e., 1 / 75th of a second) from the Table of Contents (TOC) data or the content of the recording itself. Good. The identifier is simply the concatenated track length used by the fuzzy comparison algorithm and for more accurate matching if one or more possible matches are found.
[0028]
The following is an example of a fuzzy comparison algorithm used in the present invention. For each of the two audio CDs to be compared, the length of all tracks on the recording medium is determined in milliseconds. Next, each track length is shifted to the right by 8 bits. Actually, 2 ⁸ = 256 to perform truncation division. Then, the process is performed for each recording medium for each track while accumulating the two numbers, that is, the total number of alignments and the number of alignment errors, as the process proceeds. Both of these numbers are initialized to zero at the start of the comparison. For each track, increment the total number matched by the shifted track length of the first CD being compared, and increment the alignment error by the absolute value of the shifted track length difference between the two CDs. If one of the CDs has fewer tracks than the other, arriving at the last track of the CD with the smaller number of tracks, the other will increment the total number of alignments and the number of alignment errors by the remaining track length shifted while the other. Continue the calculation on the CD track. Following these steps, which run through the track, the algorithm divides the number of alignment errors by the number of matches, subtracts the resulting exponent from 1, and determines the difference by how well the two CDs match. To a percentage that indicates
[0029]
The use of track length to generate an identifier for recording is best suited for media with multiple tracks, preferably media such as CDs and DVDs with a table of contents, ie, a track for storing TOC information. Further, the use of track length or TOC data has been found to work best for fuzzy matches, which may result in finding one or more possible matches. An alternative or supplement to TOC data is to use the content on the media. However, it is desirable to use relatively small content-based identifiers to minimize storage space and bandwidth requirements.
[0030]
Embodiments of the present invention use an amplitude signature, which (if there is more than one track in the recording) uses a short, middle, and last track from the position of each track. For example, a content-based identifier generated from a 5 second sample segment can be provided. An example of such a sample segment (the term sample segment is used to generate an identifier and an identified segment, ie, an identified segment in the TOC, commonly referred to as a "track" on a CD) (Used to distinguish between the two) is illustrated by waveform 410 in FIG. 4A. According to the present invention, a plurality of amplitude bands or intervals are defined, and the number of occurrences of the waveform of all segments in each interval is counted. Redbook CD audio is a digital audio file sampled in 16-bit stereo with 44.1K samples per channel and 75 frames of data per second. Therefore, a maximum of 220,500 times occurs in one 5-second sample segment (75 frames / second × 588 samples / frame × 5 seconds = 220,500 samples in 5 seconds of data). In order to guarantee uniqueness, about 2000 pieces (for example, 2 ¹¹ Or 2048), but depending on the characteristics of the waveform being compared, other sizes, numbers, and types of samples and another number of slots may be used. Is also good. To simplify the description of the present invention, a more general example is shown for FIGS. 4A and 4B.
[0031]
In a preferred embodiment, the first step is to normalize the waveform so that the first and last slots have at least one waveform occurrence. The waveform 410 of FIG. 4A is normalized over the seven slots 420 illustrated in FIG. 4A and generates the waveform 410b of FIG. 4B with the slots 420 individually shown as slots 421-427. I do. In the simplified example provided in FIG. 4B, 16 time samples are taken, one for each vertical line. Thus, there is one sample of the waveform 410b in the slot 421, three in the slot 422, two in the slot 423, one in the slot 424, and one in the slot 425. There are two, three in the slot 426 and four in the slot 427. This is represented by the linear array A1 [1, 3, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4].
[0032]
If the array A1 is an identification signature array representing a selected recording for which a match in the database is to be searched, the fuzzy match computes the average of the differences between the elements of A1 and the elements of the existing signature array. May be performed. For example, one of the records in the database is A2 [2,3,4,1 for a difference array of [1,0,2,0,1,0,1] or an average difference of 5/7 or 0.714. , 1, 3, 3]. "Fuzzy matching" based on average differences allows for waveform errors and incomplete initial findings for signature generation. However, the average difference that is accepted as a match must be set in order to minimize false positives. Alternatively, the number or length of the sample segments may be increased to reduce false positives, but this increases the time taken to read the recording medium and calculate the signature array. For the tested waveforms, an average difference of 10 removes a number of false positives when using the CD waveform and three 5-second sample segments, each having 2048 slots. However, it turns out that we can actually find all possible matches. Under these conditions, it can be seen that 256 intervals (slots) produce so many matches of dissimilar waveforms, and 4000 intervals (slots) are placed separately, so that there are many close matches. Was. The exact number of slots depends on the size of the sample segment and the type of waveform being sampled.
[0033]
If one or more possible matches are found, an identification and a more accurate comparison of the existing signature array is performed. Either exactly aligned slots or the number of slots within one alignment occurrence may be used. In the above example, if one error (or one delay) in one array is allowed and three of seven or 43% of the elements match exactly, six of seven or array 86% of the elements in A1 and A2 are matched. It has been found that it is likely that a match of over 80% for one tolerance or over 70% without tolerance would be possible. The tolerance is increased to one or more, allowing more tolerance in matching the waveforms.
[0034]
The unique identifier for the music recording is used as a database key. The site may maintain a database of information about CDs, for example, information about all CDs released by a particular record company may be maintained on that record company's site. There are various ways for the user to navigate this information. For example, a user may use a web page containing a number of hyperlinks as a table of contents, or may use a conventional search engine. A third method of searching enabled by the unique identifier of the present invention is the presence of a web page that recommends that the user place the CD for which information is sought on the computer's CD drive. Upon detecting the presence of a CD in the drive, the web page script calculates a unique identifier corresponding to the CD and sends it to the server. The server then displays information about the CD retrieved from the database based on the unique identifier. This information includes web addresses (URLs) associated with the audio CD (eg, from the artist's home page), simple data such as song titles, and potentially (eg, the band's) pictures, artwork, videos, and Complementary entertainment including video clips may be included. Arranging the items and when the user inserts the audio CD into the computer, (i) the browser is started if it is not already running, (ii) the browser calculates the unique identifier of the CD, and It is also possible to retrieve the URL from the identifier and (iii) cause the browser to get an HTTP transaction on that URL.
[0035]
Another application of the unique identifier for music recording is to use an audio CD as a key to enter the premium area of the web. Currently, there are premium areas of the web that are allowed by signature. A simple form of permission based on a unique identifier is that a user can access a particular area of the web by placing a particular CD or a CD released by a particular company or a particular band or It is necessary to put a CD containing the music of the artist. This is easily performed by a script that uses the functionality provided by the command plug-in and calculates a unique identifier.
[0036]
A third aspect of the present invention is a chat room connection with music recording. Its purpose is to provide the same music to all participants in the chat room almost simultaneously.
[0037]
General network protocols for chat services are described in Oikarinen & D. The Internet Relay Chat (IRC) described by Reed in the Internet Relay Chat Protocol (Internet Request for Comments, No. 1459, 1993). In this protocol, when a client of a chat server becomes a client, the name of the chat room is sent. The chat server receives messages from all of the client's names and relays the message sent from one client to all other clients connected to the same room as the client. The messages sent by the client are typically typed by the user who is the client, and the messages received by the client are displayed and read to the user who is typically the client.
[0038]
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the chat client is customized by a plug-in we call a chat plug-in. The chat client is started by the browser as follows (see FIG. 3). Once downloaded, the user connects (box 305) by browser to a central web page (box 300) asking if the user has inserted the CD into his player. The unique identifier of the CD is calculated and sent back to the server by using the control plug-in described above under the command of the script of the central web page (box 310). The server then uses the unique identifier to determine whether the chat room focuses on the CD (box 315). This step may be performed by finding the unique identifier in the database using techniques known in the art. When a web page is connected to a database, for example, December & Ginsberg, supra, chapter 21, there is an enormous amount of literature. If a CD-focused chat room exists or can be created, the server responds with the name of the chat room and the browser starts the chat client on the user's computer as a client of the chat room. Yes (box 320).
[0039]
The name of the chat room is set by the server and contains information about the track that the CD is playing on the client terminal of the other chat room, the time the track started playing, and the volume at which the CD is playing. I have. The chat client plug-in uses the information and causes the control plug-in to set the CD on the user's computer and to play almost in sync with the CD playing on the client terminal in the other chat room ( Box 320).
[0040]
Each user in the chat room can control the CD being played on his terminal. The control action becomes a chat plug-in that sends a message to the chat server describing the control action being performed (box 325). For example, such a message may indicate a change in the location of a CD, a change in volume, or the removal of a CD for replacement with another CD. The chat plug-in running on the other user's terminal repeats the operation on the other user's terminal (as much as possible) using the above-mentioned control plug-in when viewing such a message. (Box 330).
[0041]
In a further aspect of the invention, a chat room focused on a particular music recording can select a particular track through a voting procedure. A simple voting procedure is that each chat plug-in affects the type of change message described above only when it sees two consecutive change messages that can be identified. This means that in order to change the track being played, two users need to change to that track. The second song may be replaced with a higher number.
[0042]
In a further aspect of the invention, messages delivered to chat users are driven from text files rather than typing by hand. Thereby, the experience recorded in advance is reproduced for a group of chat users. Such a technique may be used to create a pre-recorded, narrated tour of an audio CD.
[0043]
An important advantage of the preferred embodiment as described above is that it supports the minimal functionality required by an Internet Relay Chat or similar protocol that provides a minimal chat service. That is, it may be used with any chat server software. Additional software needed is found in the chat client plug-in and central web page, connecting to a database of CD information.
[0044]
Numerous features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the detailed description, and thus the appended claims are intended to cover all such features and advantages of systems that fall within the spirit and scope of the invention. ing. In addition, many modifications and variations will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art from the present disclosure. It is not desired to limit the invention to the exact configuration and operation shown and described, and accordingly, appropriate modifications and equivalents may be employed without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an environment in which the preferred embodiment operates.
FIG. 2
FIG. 2 is a flowchart of the synchronization code of the present invention.
FIG. 3
FIG. 3 is a flowchart of an operation sequence for connecting to a chat room focused on music recording.
FIG. 4
4A and 4B are explanatory diagrams of the waveform analysis according to the present invention.

Claims (46)

A method of searching for a match in a database of a plurality of records, wherein said records in said database correspond to recordings including waveforms,
Generating an amplitude signature for at least one segment of the selected recording;
Determining at least one matching record in the database for the selected recording based on the amplitude signature;
A method comprising: Further, for the record and the selected recording in the database, comprising a step of calculating approximate length information,
The method of claim 1, wherein the determining step is also based on the approximate length information. The recording has at least one track,
The calculating step calculates the length of each track of each recording in the database and represented for the selected recording;
The method of claim 2, wherein the determining step is also based on the number and length of tracks of the recording represented in the database and the selected recording. The waveform is represented by sampled digital data of the recording and the selected recording;
The method further comprises storing an existing signature array for each of the recordings represented in the database, wherein each element of the existing signature array includes at least one of the recordings represented in the database. In one segment, corresponding to the number of occurrences of said sampled digital data in an amplitude band;
The generating step generates an identification signature array, wherein each element of the identification signature array corresponds to a number of occurrences of the sampled digital data in an amplitude band in the at least one segment of the selected recording. 4. The method of claim 3, wherein: The determining step includes:
For the recording represented in the database, calculating an average difference between the elements of the identification signature array and the existing signature array,
Identifying any recording represented in the database where the average difference is greater than a predetermined value as a possible match. The determining step includes:
Calculating, within a predetermined number of each other, matching percentages of the identification signature array and corresponding elements in the existing signature array;
Indicating as a possible match any recording represented in the database, wherein the match percentage is greater than a predetermined percentage. The method of claim 6, wherein the predetermined number is zero and the predetermined percentage is about 70%. The method of claim 6, wherein the predetermined number is one and the predetermined percentage is about 80%. The method of claim 4, wherein the recording is stored on a removable storage medium owned by a user. The method of claim 4, wherein the recording is a digital file stored on a mass storage device accessible by a viewer of the selected recording. Additionally, receiving a query to search for a match between the selected recording and the record in the database, the query including, for the selected recording, a track number and the length information. 4. The method according to claim 3, comprising the steps of: The waveform is represented by digital data sampled in the recording and the selected recording;
The method further comprises storing an existing signature array for each of the recordings represented in the database, wherein each element of the existing signature array includes at least one of the recordings represented in the database. In one segment, corresponding to the number of occurrences of said sampled digital data in an amplitude band;
The generating step generates an identification signature array, wherein each element of the identification signature array corresponds to a number of occurrences of the sampled digital data in an amplitude band in the at least one segment of the selected recording. The method of claim 1, wherein The determining step includes:
For the recording represented in the database, calculating an average difference between the elements of the identification signature array and the existing signature array,
Identifying any recording represented in the database as a possible match, wherein the average difference is greater than a predetermined value. The determining step includes:
Calculating, within a predetermined number of each other, a matching percentage of the identification signature array and corresponding elements in the existing signature array;
Indicating as a possible match any recording represented in the database where the match percentage is greater than a predetermined percentage. The method of claim 14, wherein the predetermined number is zero and the predetermined percentage is about 70%. The method of claim 14, wherein the predetermined number is 1 and the predetermined percentage is about 80%. The method of claim 12, wherein the recording is stored on a removable storage medium owned by the user. The method of claim 17, wherein the recording is a digital file stored on a mass storage medium accessible by a listener of the selected recording. Playing the selected recording at a first location on a device owned by the user;
The method further comprises:
Generating a query by the device at the first location;
Sending the query to a server at a second location where the database is stored to retrieve at least one matching record. And transmitting additional information stored in the at least one approximate match record and not included in the selected recording from the server to the device at the first location. 20. The method according to claim 19, wherein: For a recording corresponding to the record, a storage unit storing a database of records including existing signatures,
Coupled to the storage unit to generate an identification amplitude signature for the selected recording, and to compare the identification amplitude signature to the existing amplitude signature in the database for the selected recording. A processing unit programmed to determine at least one matching record in said database. The storage unit further stores information indicating the length and number of the identified segments of the recording;
The processing unit calculates approximate length information for the selected recording, and further identifies the approximate length information in the selected recording and the recording corresponding to the record in the database. 22. The database system according to claim 21, wherein the at least one matching record in the database is determined based on the number of segments obtained. The recording includes sampled digital data;
The storage unit stores the existing signature array corresponding to a number of occurrences of the sampled digital data in an amplitude band in at least one segment of the recording where each element is represented in the database. ,
The processing unit generates the identification signature array, each element corresponding to a number of occurrences of the sampled digital data in an amplitude band in at least one segment of the selected recording, and displaying the identification signature array in the database. Calculating the average difference between the elements of the identification signature array and the existing signature array for the recording being performed, and any recording represented in the database where the average difference is greater than a predetermined value. 22. The database system of claim 21, wherein the at least one match record is determined by identifying the match as a good match. The recording includes sampled digital data;
The storage unit stores the existing signature array corresponding to a number of occurrences of the sampled digital data in an amplitude band in at least one segment of the recording where each element is represented in the database. ,
Said processing unit generating said identification signature array, each element corresponding to a number of occurrences of said sampled digital data in an amplitude band in at least one segment of said selected recording, wherein a predetermined number of each Calculating a matching percentage of the identification signature array and corresponding elements in the existing signature array, and matching any of the recordings represented in the database where the matching percentage is greater than a predetermined percentage. 22. The database system of claim 21, wherein the at least one matching record is determined by indicating Further, a communication unit coupled to the storage unit for receiving a query for searching for a match between the selected recording and the record in the database, wherein the query is related to the selected recording. 22. The database system according to claim 21, further comprising a communication unit including the number of segments and the length information. The recording of claim 2, wherein the recording corresponding to the recording in the database and the selected recording each include at least one audio portion, and wherein the number of segments is the number of tracks in the audio portion. 26. The database system according to 25. The database system according to claim 26, wherein the recording is stored in a removable storage medium owned by the user. The database system of claim 26, wherein the recording is a digital file stored on a mass storage device accessible by a listener of the selected recording. The processing unit, the storage unit, and the communication unit are in a first position;
The database system further comprises:
An apparatus for generating the query and playing the selected recording, owned by a user at a second location and remote from the first location;
26. A database according to claim 25, comprising a communication network for at least temporarily connecting the device with the communication unit and for sending the inquiry from the device to the communication unit. system. Wherein said communication unit sends said device over said communication network additional information stored in said at least one approximate matching record and not included in said selected recording. A database system according to claim 29. At least one computer program stored on a computer-readable medium for performing a method of searching for a match in a database of a plurality of records, wherein the records in the database correspond to recordings including waveforms. Program
Generating an amplitude signature for at least one segment of the selected recording;
Determining at least one matching record in the database for the selected recording based on the amplitude signature. Further comprising calculating approximate length information for the record and the selected recording in the database,
The at least one computer program of claim 31, wherein the determining step is also based on the approximate length information. The recording has at least one track,
The calculating step calculates the length of each track of each recording represented in the database and for the selected recording;
33. The at least one computer program of claim 32, wherein the determining step is also based on the number and length of tracks of the recording represented in the database and the selected recording. . The waveform is represented by the sampled digital data in the recording and the selected recording;
The method further comprises storing an existing signature array for each of the recordings represented in the database, wherein each element of the existing signature array represents the recording represented in the database. Corresponding to the number of occurrences of said sampled digital data in an amplitude band in at least one segment of
The generating step generates an identification signature array, wherein each element of the identification signature array corresponds to a number of occurrences of the sampled digital data in an amplitude band in the at least one segment of the selected recording. 34. At least one computer program according to claim 33, characterized in that: The determining step includes:
For the recording represented in the database, calculating an average difference between the elements of the identification signature array and the existing signature array,
Identifying at least one recording represented in the database as a possible match, wherein the average difference is greater than a predetermined value. The determining step includes:
Calculating, within a predetermined number of each other, a matching percentage of the identification signature array and corresponding elements in the existing signature array;
At least one computer program as claimed in claim 34, wherein the match percentage indicates any recording represented in the database that is greater than a predetermined percentage as a possible match. 35. The at least one computer program of claim 34, wherein the recording is stored on a removable storage medium owned by the user. 35. The at least one computer program of claim 34, wherein the recording is a digital file stored on a mass storage device accessible by a listener of the selected recording. Further, receiving a query to search for a match between the selected recording and the record in the database, the query comprising: a track number and the length information for the selected recording. 34. At least one computer program according to claim 33, comprising the steps of including. The waveform is represented by the sampled digital data in the recording and the selected recording;
The method further comprises storing an existing signature array for each of the recordings represented in the database, wherein each element of the existing signature array includes at least one of the recordings represented in the database. In one segment, corresponding to the number of occurrences of said sampled digital data in an amplitude band;
The generating step generates an identification signature array, wherein each element of the identification signature array corresponds to a number of occurrences of the sampled digital data in an amplitude band in the at least one segment of the selected recording. The at least one computer program according to claim 31, characterized in that: The determining step includes:
For the recording represented in the database, calculating an average difference between the elements of the identification signature array and the existing signature array,
At least one computer program as claimed in claim 40, characterized in that any recording represented in the database whose average difference is greater than a predetermined value is identified as a possible match. The determining step includes:
Calculating, within a predetermined number of each other, a matching percentage of the identification signature array and corresponding elements in the existing signature array;
Indicating as a possible match any recording represented in the database, wherein the match percentage is greater than a predetermined percentage. 41. The at least one computer program according to claim 40, wherein the recording is stored on a removable storage medium owned by the user. 44. The at least one computer program of claim 43, wherein the recording is a digital file stored on a mass storage device accessible by a listener of the selected recording. Playing the selected recording at a first location on a device owned by the user;
The method further comprises:
Generating an inquiry by the device at the first location;
Sending said query to a server at a second location where said database is stored to retrieve at least one matching record. Computer programs. Additionally, the method comprises sending from the server to the device at the first location additional information stored in the at least one approximate matching record and not included in the selected recording. 46. The at least one computer program according to claim 45, characterized in that:

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