Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!netsys!lamc!well!nagle
From: nagle@well.UUCP (John Nagle)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: detecting TV commercials, is it possible?
Message-ID: <13675@well.UUCP>
Date: 17 Sep 89 16:28:42 GMT
References: <4482@natinst.natinst.com> <78@uwm.edu> <3553@dgis.daitc.mil>
Reply-To: nagle@well.UUCP (John Nagle)
Lines: 30


       About five years ago, I encountered a unit designed to eliminate
commercials from VCR tapes recorded off the air.  This unit was for sale
at a video store at the Stanford Shopping Center, for about $350.  The
manual claimed that it used "AI techniques" to recognize commercials.

       The device contained a TV tuner and was connected to a VCR via
the video in and wired remote control connectors.  A short list of about
eight VCRs were supported.  The basic way the unit operated was that
when recording, recording continued into a commercial, but about five
to ten seconds into the commercial, the unit would notice that it was
recording a commercial.  The VCR then stopped, rewound briefly, switched
to play, advanced to the beginning of the commercial, and switched to
record and pause.  At the end of the commercial, recording resumed
immediately.  If the next segment was also a commercial, the cycle
repeated.

       I spent some time playing with this unit, and was quite impressed.
I tried it on a basketball game, and it was quite happy to record the game
without any false alarms, despiteots of cuts and effects during the game.
When a commercial break started, the unit detected the commercial properly
and executed the rewind sequence.  This repeated for all the commercials
during the break.  After the break, the game resumed and so did recording.
Playing back the tape showed a clean edit around the commercials.

       Unfortunately, I don't have the name of the manufacturer, and
the store is gone as well.  If anyone has further information, I'd like
to hear it.  I had no idea this device would disappear from the market.

					John Nagle