Patent US 9,984,728

Various embodiments identify differences between frame sequences of a video. For example, to determine a difference between two versions of a video, a fingerprint of each frame of the two versions is generated. From the fingerprints, a run-length encoded representation of each version is generated. The fingerprints which appear only once (i.e., unique fingerprints) in the entire video are identified from each version and compared to identify matching unique fingerprints across versions. The matching unique fingerprints are sorted and filtered to determine split points, which are used to align the two versions of the video. Accordingly, each version is segmented into smaller frame sequences using the split points. Once segmented, the individual frames of each segment are aligned across versions using a dynamic programming algorithm. After aligning the segments at a frame level, the segments are reassembled to generate a global alignment output.