KR101889220B1 - Method and system for collecting video consumption information using video segment - Google Patents

Abstract

A method and system for collecting video consumption information using a video segment are disclosed. The system implemented by a computer includes at least one processor configured to execute a computer-readable command. The at least one processor includes a hash generation unit for generating a hash table by hashing the segments of video content; a hash storage unit for storing the hash table; and a hash confirming unit for confirming specific video content consumed in a user terminal by comparing a hash value received from the user terminal with the hash table. Accordingly, the video consumption information can be used in various data brokerage technology fields.

Description

[0001] METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR COLLECTING VIDEO CONSUMPTION INFORMATION WITH VIDEO SEGMENTS [0002]

The following description relates to a technique for collecting video consumption information using hashed video segments in MPEG-DASH and HLS environments.

With the proliferation of multimedia and communication technologies, portable Internet connection devices and the Internet video streaming market are exploding.

There are many media streaming technologies currently available, but HLS (HTTP live streaming) and MPEG (moving picture expert group) -DASH (dynamic adaptive streaming over HTTP) are HTTP based and HTTP is the basis of data communication for the Web, Streaming traffic occurs in dynamic adaptive streaming through HLS and MPEG-DASH.

The two techniques create a series of small video segments at a bit rate different from that of the original content source and provide each segment that contains video information at that point in time at the request of the user. The same content is divided into different bit rates in advance and prepared in a segment form and then streamed at an appropriate bit rate according to each user's network and request. This is widely used because it can improve user quality experience using streaming video content.

As the age of the data comes, data is viewed as a new asset. Thus, many service providers spend a great deal of effort and money to collect and analyze data about consumers. For example, most of the smart TV devices use ACR (Automatic Content Recognition) or the like to collect user's viewing history and content exposure information, and use the information to measure advertisement effect and target advertisement. As can be seen in this way, data gathering of user behavior and consumption in a useful and effective way at the time of collection, so-called consumption information measurement, is as important as modifying and analyzing collected data.

Consumption information indicates how content is consumed and by whom. This provides an indication of viewer behavior, consumption rate, satisfaction rating, and many other useful functions that contribute to improving the user experience by facilitating content consumption pattern analysis and providing desirable content to each user. Accordingly, video service providers are focusing on building a consumption information database.

A method and system for collecting video consumption information using hashed video segments in an MPEG-DASH environment.

What is claimed is: 1. A computer-implemented system comprising: at least one processor implemented to execute computer-readable instructions, the at least one processor comprising: a hash generator for hashing a segment of video content to generate a hash table; A hash storage unit storing the hash table; And a hash verification unit comparing the hash value received from the user terminal with the hash table to identify specific video contents consumed by the user terminal.

According to an aspect of the present invention, in an environment in which a content server provides video streaming through HTTP live streaming (HLS) or dynamic adaptive streaming over HTTP (DASH) to the user terminal, The hash table can be generated by downloading the contents in units of segments.

According to another aspect of the present invention, the at least one processor further includes a content downloading unit for downloading the video content segment by segment from the content server, wherein the at least one processor temporarily stores segments of the video content, Once created, you can delete it.

According to another aspect of the present invention, the hash generation unit may determine a length of a hash based on a size of a content server providing the video content.

According to another aspect of the present invention, the hash generation unit may generate the hash table after validating the segment of the video content.

According to another aspect, the at least one processor may further include a hash checker for performing a validation on the hash value received from the user terminal.

According to another aspect, the at least one processor may further include a client identification unit for collecting and managing user information including a video play related event, an IP address, and browser agent information from the user terminal.

In a user terminal, in an environment where a content server provides video streaming to the user terminal via HTTP live streaming (HLS) or dynamic adaptive streaming over HTTP (DASH), the user terminal is configured to execute a computer- Wherein the at least one processor is configured to download a segment of video content to be played in a web browser on the user terminal from the content server and to hash the segment of the downloaded video content to obtain a hash value And transmits the generated hash value to a system for collecting video consumption information for the video contents.

According to an aspect, the system includes a hash table of segment values of individual video, and may be reflected in the video consumption information if the generated hash value is present in a hash table on the system.

According to another aspect, the at least one processor may download a playlist of the video content from the content server and request a segment of the video content to the content server according to the playlist.

A computer-implemented method, comprising: in an environment in which a content server provides video streaming over HTTP live streaming (HLS) or dynamic adaptive streaming over HTTP (DASH) to a user terminal, Downloading the content segment by segment; Generating a hash table by hashing the segment of the video content; And comparing the hash value received from the user terminal with the hash table to identify the video contents consumed by the user terminal.

According to an aspect, the verifying step may update video consumption information for the video content if a hash value received from the user terminal is present in the hash table.

A method for performing a method in a user terminal, the method comprising the steps of: in an environment in which a content server provides video streaming to a user terminal through HTTP live streaming (HLS) or dynamic adaptive streaming over HTTP (DASH) Downloading a segment of video content to be played in a web browser on the user terminal; Generating a hash value by hashing a segment of the downloaded video content; And delivering the generated hash value to a system for collecting video consumption information for the video content.

According to an aspect, the method includes downloading a playlist of the video content from the content server; And requesting a segment of the video content to the content server according to the play list.

According to another aspect, the system includes a hash table for the segment value of the individual video, and may be reflected in the video consumption information if the generated hash value is present in the hash table on the system.

According to embodiments of the present invention, segment information of a video stream provided on the basis of HTTP is analyzed in a terminal environment of a user, so that information on which video content the user consumes can be collected. Further, Can be utilized in various data mediation technologies such as image-based viewing information analysis.

1 shows a general video streaming structure.
2 is an exemplary diagram illustrating a process of receiving a video segment and reproducing an image in a video streaming process.
3 is a diagram for explaining a main concept of a system for collecting video consumption information in an embodiment of the present invention.
4 is a block diagram illustrating an overall system configuration for collecting video consumption information in one embodiment of the present invention.
5 is a block diagram showing a player structure having a hash generation function in an embodiment of the present invention.
6 is a flowchart illustrating a hash generation process of a player in an embodiment of the present invention.
7 is a flowchart illustrating a hash verification process for collecting video consumption information according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Video streaming is currently done in a variety of ways, but most operators are using HLS or DASH, which is optimized for HTTP. Such a provider's method of providing a video stream is a method of cutting and storing the original video contents in units of individual chunks, and providing the same in response to a user's request (HTTP Get). In other words, the original video content follows the manner in which the divided content is provided to the users for each user's request after being segmented for the initial service.

1 shows a general video streaming structure.

Referring to FIG. 1, in the case of general video streaming (HLS / DASH), a play list (content playlist), which is information of segmented files for a video stream on the content server 10, And may be composed of segmented video content.

The user's request is made through the player on the web browser 30 and the cache server 20 is positioned between the content server 10 and the web browser 30 on the user side for fast content service.

In the above-described video streaming structure, related information can be collected on the content server 10 and the cache server 20 in association with user's content consumption.

Focusing on video content, each individual user who consumes video streaming in the DASH or HLS format receives the same video segment and plays back the video. As shown in FIG. 2, since the video content is continuously used without being changed after being divided, if it is known which video content the divided file belongs to, it can be confirmed from the terminal side what content the user has reproduced .

It is possible to analyze segment information of a video stream provided on the basis of HTTP in a user's terminal environment and analyze information about what content the user views.

Referring to FIG. 3, the video consumption information mediation system 100 may generate a hash table based on the segment value of the original content video provided by the content server 10. Accordingly, the video consumption information mediating system 100 receives the segment information from the web browser 30 on the user terminal side, hashes the received segment, and compares the received segment with the hash table generated in advance, thereby determining what content the user views .

Each of the user terminals including the video consumption information mediation system 100, the content server 10, and the web browser 30 may include one or more processors as internal components. A processor may include or be part of any device that is capable of processing a sequence of instructions as being a computing component.

Hereinafter, a specific embodiment of a method and system for collecting video consumption information using a video segment will be described.

4 is a block diagram illustrating an overall system configuration for collecting video consumption information in one embodiment of the present invention.

4, the video consumption information mediation system 100 includes a video agggator 110, a video information server 120, and a client hash receiver (not shown) 130).

First, the specific configuration and operation of the video collecting unit 110 are as follows.

The video collecting unit 110 collects video content from an online video provider (OVP) such as the content server 10, and generates individual video content information and a hash table of the divided content. It can be configured as a parallel type system to distribute the load according to content aggregation and hash.

In detail, the video collecting unit 110 includes a video downloader 111, a video temporary storage 112, a video information parser 113, A hash generator 114 may be included.

The video download unit 111 plays a role of downloading video content from the OVP in units of physical segments (chunks). At this time, the video downloading unit 111 must be able to read the MPL-based play list in case of DASH and the m3u8-based play list in case of HLS in order to support the play list format according to the characteristics of each protocol. If the video download unit 111 supports various resolutions such as adaptive streaming for individual contents, the video download unit 111 may download all segments for individual bitrates.

The video temporary storage unit 112 temporarily stores the segment downloaded by the video download unit 111. The downloaded content can be deleted after the hash generation is completed.

The video information analyzing unit 113 reads the information of the content that the OVP exposes in the form of a web site or metadata. When the OVP provides the corresponding information directly, the video information analysis unit 113 can extract necessary content information through metadata mapping. On the other hand, when the OVP does not directly provide the corresponding information, the video information analyzing unit 113 can extract necessary information by parsing the contents of the web page.

The hash generation unit 114 generates a hash value for the collected video segment. The hash generation unit 114 may adjust the length of the hash based on the size of the site (the number of visitors or the number of contents), and may selectively apply an algorithm for generating the hash. SHA-256, SHA-384, SHA-512, etc. may be used as the algorithm used for hash generation.

The specific configuration and operation of the video information server 120 will now be described.

The video information server 120 stores and manages the hash table of the segment values of the video information and the individual video collected from the OVP. In addition, the video information server 120 may provide an association function with an external API-based external data broker 40 for generating sophisticated video information, and may transmit the collected information related to video playback of users to an external data intermediary (40). ≪ / RTI >

In detail, the video information server 120 includes an open API connector 121, a video information manager 122, a client information manager 123, a hash a manager 124, and a hash storage 125.

The open API connection unit 121 may provide an API function for externally providing the collected video content playback information. The open API connection unit 121 may provide an API for supplementing the information of the video content through the external data intermediary 40 (e.g., IMBD, Open API of OVP, etc.).

The video information management unit 122 manages information on video contents and can provide a function of determining the similarity of individual segment information to the same video using the metadata. The video information management unit 122 may update the content-related metadata information by additionally linking the information via the external data intermediary 40, in addition to the metadata of the video content collected from the video collection unit 110. [

The client information management unit 123 may provide a function of collecting and managing information of a terminal used by a player. At this time, the client information management unit 123 collects browser agent information, IP address information, and additional player-related event information (for example, playback time, playback interval, etc.) .

The hash management unit 124 may provide a function of managing the hash of the segment information of the video content. At this time, the hash information can be determined according to the scale of the target OVP and the content amount.

The hash storage unit 125 serves as a storage for storing hash values of segment information for each video.

The specific configuration and operation of the client hash receiver 130 will now be described.

The client hash receiver 130 is a module for providing hash information for each user player and collecting content consumption information.

In detail, the client hash receiver 130 may include a client identifier 131, a hash checker 132, and a hash validator 133.

The client identification unit 131 may provide a function for managing the information for each user when collecting additional information from the client (including Opt-in / out all cases). At this time, the information that can be collected by the client identification unit 131 may include video play related events (e.g., playback, stop, skip, etc.), IP address, browser agent information, and the like.

The hash verification unit 132 compares whether the hash value received from the user via the web browser 30 exists on the video information server 120 and reflects the hash value in the view value (i.e., consumption information) Can play a role.

The hash check unit 133 may be operable to determine whether the hash value received from the user via the web browser 30 is valid.

Accordingly, the video consumption information mediating system 100 can generate a hash table by hashing the segment of the original video contents, and then compare the hash value of the user terminal with the hash table to check what content the user plays.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a player structure having a hash generation function in an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a hash generation process of a player in an embodiment of the present invention.

5, a player on the web browser 30 includes a playlist parser 31 and a hash generator 32 as components for performing a hash generation function .

Referring to FIG. 6, a player on the web browser 30 can be executed according to a playback request by a user of the terminal or a program (S601). At this time, the player can request a play list of video to the content server 10.

The player can download the playlist of the video from the content server 10 (S602). At this time, the player can download the MPL-based play list for DASH and the m3u8-based play list for HLS according to the characteristics of each protocol.

The play list analyzing unit 31 of the player analyzes the play list downloaded from the content server 10 and analyzes the play list containing the segment information of the video (S603). The player can set the video quality according to the segment information of the play list.

The player can request the video segment to be played back to the content server 10 (S604), and the corresponding video segment can be downloaded from the content server 10 through the HTTP client (S605).

The player may perform validation on the video segment (S606). In other words, the player can judge whether the video segment downloaded from the content server 10 is normal or not. For example, validation can use a CRC (cyclic redundancy check) or the like.

The player can call the hash generating unit 32 for a valid video segment (S607). That is, the player can transmit the information of the video segment downloaded from the content server 10 to the hash generation unit 32.

The hash generating unit 32 of the player can generate a hashing value by reading the downloaded video segment from the content server 10 and hashing the corresponding segment (S608).

The hash generation unit 32 may transmit the hash value generated for the video segment to the client hash reception unit 130 (S609).

The player may terminate the execution according to a stop notification reception or a stop / end request by the user (S610). At this time, the player can request the hash generation unit 32 to end the generation of the additional hash information when the content is recognized by checking the hash value. Then, the player can terminate the reproduction in response to a user request of the terminal or an end file request of an arbitrary program or a play list.

7 is a flowchart illustrating a hash verification process for collecting video consumption information according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. The hash verification process of FIG. 7 may be executed by the hash verification unit 132, which is a component of the video consumption information intermediary system 100. [

In step S701, the hash verification unit 132 may receive the hash information for the video segment from the client, that is, the player on the web browser 30. [ In other words, the hash verification unit 132 may receive the hash value of the video segment being reproduced in the web browser 30. In addition, the hash verification unit 132 may collect HTTP-based information (e.g., IP address, etc.) received from the client.

In step S702, the hash verification unit 132 may perform a validity check on the hash value received from the client. MD5, SHA1, SHA-224, SHA-256, SHA-384, SHA-512, etc. may be used for the validation of the hash

In step S703, the hash verification unit 132 may check which video the hash value received from the client corresponds to, using the hash value stored in the hash storage unit 125 on the video information server 120. [

In step S704, the hash verification unit 132 may update the consumption information on the corresponding video if the hash value received from the client matches the hash value stored in advance through the hash verification process of step S703.

In step S705, the hash verification unit 132 may update the user information that consumes the video based on the HTTP-based information (e.g., IP address, etc.) received from the client.

In step S706, the hash verification unit 132 may provide a notification of the suspension or interval of the hash generation process. That is, the hash verification unit 132 may provide a notification as to whether or not to generate the hash of the client terminal.

Accordingly, the client hash receiver 130 compares whether the hash value received from the user through the web browser 30 exists on the video information server 120, and reflects the hash value in the consumption information for the corresponding video content if it exists . The video consumption information can be utilized as an evaluation index for viewer measurement, viewer behavior, consumption rate, satisfaction, etc. in order to facilitate the content consumption pattern analysis or the provision of desirable contents of the user.

As described above, according to embodiments of the present invention, by analyzing segment information of a video stream provided on the basis of HTTP in a terminal environment of a user, it is possible to collect information on which video content the user consumes, Information can be utilized in various data intermediation technologies such as image-based viewing information analysis.

The apparatus described above may be implemented as a hardware component, a software component, and / or a combination of hardware components and software components. For example, the apparatus and components described in the embodiments may be implemented as a processor, a controller, an arithmetic logic unit (ALU), a digital signal processor, a microcomputer, a field programmable gate array (FPGA), a programmable logic unit, a microprocessor, or any other device capable of executing and responding to instructions. The processing device may execute an operating system (OS) and one or more software applications running on the operating system. The processing device may also access, store, manipulate, process, and generate data in response to execution of the software. For ease of understanding, the processing apparatus may be described as being used singly, but those skilled in the art will recognize that the processing apparatus may have a plurality of processing elements and / As shown in FIG. For example, the processing unit may comprise a plurality of processors or one processor and one controller. Other processing configurations are also possible, such as a parallel processor.

The software may include a computer program, code, instructions, or a combination of one or more of the foregoing, and may be configured to configure the processing device to operate as desired or to process it collectively or collectively Device can be commanded. The software and / or data may be embodied in any type of machine, component, physical device, computer storage media, or device for interpretation by a processing device or to provide instructions or data to the processing device have. The software may be distributed over a networked computer system and stored or executed in a distributed manner. The software and data may be stored on one or more computer readable recording media.

The method according to an embodiment may be implemented in the form of a program command that can be executed through various computer means and recorded in a computer-readable medium. At this time, the medium may be a program that continuously stores a computer executable program, or temporarily stores the program for execution or downloading. Further, the medium may be a variety of recording means or storage means in the form of a combination of a single hardware or a plurality of hardware, but is not limited to a medium directly connected to any computer system, but may be dispersed on a network. Examples of the medium include a magnetic medium such as a hard disk, a floppy disk and a magnetic tape, an optical recording medium such as CD-ROM and DVD, a magneto-optical medium such as a floptical disk, And program instructions including ROM, RAM, flash memory, and the like. As another example of the medium, a recording medium or a storage medium that is managed by a site or a server that supplies or distributes an application store or various other software is also enumerated.

While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed exemplary embodiments. For example, it is to be understood that the techniques described may be performed in a different order than the described methods, and / or that components of the described systems, structures, devices, circuits, Lt; / RTI > or equivalents, even if it is replaced or replaced.

Therefore, other implementations, other embodiments, and equivalents to the claims are also within the scope of the following claims.

Claims (15)

In a computer implemented system,
At least one processor configured to execute computer readable instructions,
Lt; / RTI >
In an environment in which a content server provides video streaming through HTTP live streaming (HLS) or dynamic adaptive streaming over HTTP (DASH) to a user terminal,
Wherein the at least one processor comprises:
A content downloading unit for downloading video content from the content server on a segment basis;
A hash generation unit for hashing a segment of the video content to generate a hash table;
A hash storage unit storing the hash table; And
A hash value confirmation unit for comparing the hash value received from the user terminal with the hash table to identify the specific video contents consumed by the user terminal,
Lt; / RTI >
The content downloading unit,
In order to support the play list format according to the characteristics of each protocol, a play list based on m3u8 is read in the case of HLS, a play list in MPD format is read in the case of DASH,
Downloading, by the content server, the segment according to the bit rate supported by the content server with respect to the video content,
Wherein the hash-
Wherein the hash table is generated by downloading each video content from the content server on a segment basis,
Temporarily storing the downloaded segment, deleting the downloaded segment when the generation of the hash table for the temporarily stored segment is completed,
Determines the length of the hash based on the number of visitors or the number of contents of the web site corresponding to the content server,
The hash-
Receiving a hash value of a video segment reproduced in the web browser of the user terminal from the user terminal and HTTP-based information of the user terminal,
Updating video consumption information for the video content if a hash value received from the user terminal exists in the hash table,
Updating the user information that consumed the video content based on the HTTP-based information received from the user terminal,
The video consumption information is used as an evaluation index for content consumption pattern analysis or content provision
Lt; / RTI > delete delete delete The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the hash-
Generating a hash table after validating the segment of the video content
Lt; / RTI > The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the at least one processor comprises:
A hash check unit for performing a validity check on a hash value received from the user terminal,
≪ / RTI > The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the at least one processor comprises:
A client identification unit for collecting and managing user information including a video play related event, an IP address, and browser agent information from the user terminal,
≪ / RTI > delete delete delete In a computer implemented method,
The method comprises:
In an environment in which a content server provides video streaming through HTTP live streaming (HLS) or dynamic adaptive streaming over HTTP (DASH) to a user terminal,
Receiving video content from the content server in a segment unit;
Generating a hash table by hashing the segment of the video content; And
Comparing the hash value received from the user terminal with the hash table and checking the video contents consumed by the user terminal
Lt; / RTI >
Wherein the downloading comprises:
In order to support the play list format according to the characteristics of each protocol, a play list based on m3u8 is read in the case of HLS, a play list in MPD format is read in the case of DASH,
Downloading, by the content server, the segment according to the bit rate supported by the content server with respect to the video content,
Wherein the generating comprises:
Wherein the hash table is generated by downloading each video content from the content server on a segment basis,
Temporarily storing the downloaded segment, deleting the downloaded segment when the generation of the hash table for the temporarily stored segment is completed,
Determines the length of the hash based on the number of visitors or the number of contents of the web site corresponding to the content server,
Wherein the verifying step comprises:
Receiving a hash value of a video segment reproduced in the web browser of the user terminal from the user terminal and HTTP-based information of the user terminal,
Updating video consumption information for the video content if a hash value received from the user terminal exists in the hash table,
Updating the user information that consumed the video content based on the HTTP-based information received from the user terminal,
The video consumption information is used as an evaluation index for content consumption pattern analysis or content provision
≪ / RTI > delete delete delete delete

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