US Patent 7590333 Image extraction from video content

Image templates define characteristics of video content desired to be recorded, including color characteristics and spatial distribution of regions to be compared in determining a level of similarity and white regions of expected variability which are ignored in the comparison. Each image template is compared to fields for an associated channel, either continuously or during a predefined period. Fields received on the associated channel which have at least a threshold level of similarity are saved, together with associated audio.