US Patent 11395037 Content-modification system with determination of input-buffer switching delay feature

In one aspect, a method includes: (i) determining a baseline input-to-output delay, which represents a time period between when content is input into a first input buffer and output by an output buffer; (ii) establishing a synchronous lock between (a) first fingerprint data representing content in the first input buffer and (b) second fingerprint data representing content in the output buffer; (iii) determining an instruction time-point at which a content-presentation device is instructed to switch from using content in the first input buffer to populate the output buffer, to using content in the second input buffer to populate the output buffer; (iv) determining a loss of synchronous lock time-point; (v) using the determined baseline input-to-output delay, the determined instruction time-point, and the determined loss of synchronous lock time-point to determine an input-buffer switching delay; and (vi) using the determined input-buffer switching delay to facilitate performing a content-modification operation.