KDDI R&D Labs Unveils Technology for Automatic Classification of Pro/Amateur Video Content

Inter BEE - the Professional Show for Audio, Video and Communications - is also a place for exhibiting the latest technologies. This year, KDDI R&D Labs is exhibiting a variety of new technologies related to encoding, transmission, and security. One that is likely to attract much attention is a technology designed to discriminate between professional and amateur video content. We asked Masaru Kanno, Chief Researcher in Multimedia Communications at KDDI R&D Labs about it.

Detecting content that infringes copyright
"This year we are again exhibiting a wide variety of technologies, but one which is likely to attract a great deal of attention is a technology for the automatic classification of pro/amateur video content. With the growing popularity of video sharing sites on the Internet, there is a corresponding increase in the number of cases of people infringing copyright by illegally uploading TV programs and other video content. With this technology, it is possible to automatically classify video clips, distinguishing material that has been produced professionally from amateur footage shot with a camcorder, webcam, mobile phone, etc.

By detecting possible infringement, particularly in the case of TV programs, we can thus protect the copyright."

Revolutionary technology that does not require registration of copyrighted content
"A key characteristic of this technology for discriminating between professional and amateur content is that it looks for distinguishing features within the video material itself that point to the use of certain recording equipment and technologies, and also production processes.

"By applying advanced analysis - using a KDDI R&D Labs proprietary technology - to video and audio features in which differences can be detected, we can determine automatically whether the material has been produced professionally or filmed by amateurs. This technology is extremely accurate: it has a 98% success rate on performance evaluation tests conducted on clips actually uploaded to a video sharing site.

"By analyzing features of the video clip itself, this technology for classifying pro/ amateur video content solves the problems faced by current technologies. It is not necessary to register video clips that would infringe copyright law if uploaded. In fact, it works with new material that has never been uploaded before.

"Already a number of video sharing sites employ technologies based on a 'fingerprint' of uploaded content - that is, a set of characteristic features that can distinguish it. The way this works is that first a database has to be stocked with the fingerprints of copyright-infringed content, and then when an unknown clip is uploaded, its fingerprint is compared with those already registered in the database. This can detect content that infringes copyright with relatively high precision; however, the following problems with this approach have been identified:

(1)It is necessary to identify beforehand video content that infringes copyright, and to register its fingerprint in the database;
(2) If the video content has been edited or otherwise altered, it may not be possible to match the fingerprint correctly;
(3) It is difficult to keep up with the massive influx of new video uploads, which are growing in volume daily.

"Our new technology for discriminating between professional and amateur video content does not suffer from these problems."

Implementing this new technology
Our technology for classifying pro/ amateur video content offers great flexibility in application as it can be easily implemented in software.

"For example, anyone managing one of these video sharing sites can install this technology on a server as a video content search engine.

"It is thus possible to protect against copyright infringement by taking steps to ensure that video clips deemed highly suspicious are not made publicly accessible; only video clips with a low likelihood of infringing copyright are allowed to be posted.

"While you are at Inter BEE, be sure to check out this new technology for the automatic classification of pro/amateur video content. Also, take a look at a world-first, our H.264 real-time encoding software for digital cinema applications, also on display."

(News Center)