According to Ronald Maandonks, CEO of the Philips Content Identification Unit, the finger printing system works by comparing bit strings extracted from the video segments and comparing them with authorized fingerprints in a special database.
"What we've developed is a very fast matching system," Maandonks said.
The system can match video files as short as five seconds in length almost instantaneously, according to Maandonks.
"The process is pretty simple when the content is the exact same; it's much more challenging when the content has been changed due to scaling, cropping or conversion to another comprehension format," Maandonks said. "The trick is to be able to match all fingerprints in a split second, and our technology can do that."
While some might be quick to compare the system to water marking content, Maandonks said that the finger print technology is preferred because it makes no changes to the original content.
Philips will demonstrate its new finger printing technology at the IFA international consumer electronics show in Berlin this September.
The company has yet to provide pricing information. However, Maandonks said that price was a factor of database size and how many channels need to be monitored.
The system has the ability to monitor 1,000 channels simultaneously on a single server.
