1. A system for extracting a fingerprint data from video/audio signals, comprising a frame buffer for storing the video frame images, which accepts a new video frame image and discards the oldest video frame image in a first in first out (FIFO) fashion; a sub-sampler for sampling the video images, which operates on one video frame image at a time, so that the output of the sub-sampler contains data samples obtained from multiple video frame images while the video image content itself is discarded, and after each video frame image is sampled at the head of the frame buffer, it is discarded after the sampling; a divider through which the data samples go, in order to divide the data samples into groups of video frames so as to be organized as one fingerprint segment after another one; a formatter which incorporates optional information to the fingerprint segment so as to form the fingerprint data, and at the output of the formatter, the video image content is discarded, only the fingerprint data and the associated optional information remain; and a transfer buffer which transfers the fingerprint data by to the fingerprint database.