Methods and apparatus for associating media devices with a demographic composition of a geographic area

• US 10,078,846 B2
• Filed: 08/18/2014
• Issued: 09/18/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/16/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Original Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Inventors: Besehanic, Jan, Mears, Paul, Milavsky, Joseph G., Luff, Robert A., Ramaswamy, Arun, Wright, David Howell
• Primary Examiner(s): Mummalaneni, Mrunalini Yerneni
• Application Number:
  US14/462,190
• Publication Number:
  US 20140358640A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,492 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2111 Location-sensitive, e.g. geographical location, GPS
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0205 Location or geographical consideration
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/69 using geographic information, e.g. room number
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2101/695 using masks or ranges of addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0811 by checking connectivity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5014 using dynamic host configuration protocol [DHCP] or bootstrap protocol [BOOTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/22 Bandwidth or usage-sensitve billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/025 using location based information parameters

Abstract

Example methods and apparatus for associating media devices with a demographic composition of a geographic area are disclosed. A disclosed example method includes receiving a plurality of Internet Protocol addresses assigned to a media device associated with a panel member, determining a most used Internet Protocol address from the plurality of Internet Protocol addresses, accessing geographic information and determining a geographic location corresponding to the most used Internet Protocol address, accessing demographic information and determining a demographic profile associated with the geographic location, and associating at least one of the geographic location or the demographic profile with the media device.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

obtaining a plurality of Internet Protocol addresses assigned to a media device associated with a panel member;

identifying a geographic area corresponding to a home location by;

determining, by executing an instruction with a processor a first one of the plurality of Internet Protocol addresses assigned to the media device that is associated with a larger amount of usage by the media device than a second one of the plurality of Internet Protocol addresses assigned to the media device;

identifying, by executing an instruction with a processor, a first geographic location corresponding to the first one of the plurality of Internet Protocol addresses assigned to the media device; and

in response to determining that the first geographic location corresponds to a location associated with an internet service provider, identifying, by executing an instruction with the processor, a second geographic location different than the first geographic location based on the first one of the plurality of Internet Protocol addresses assigned to the media device, the geographic area including the first geographic location and the second geographic location, the second geographic location being associated with a second geographic location identifier different from a first geographic location identifier associated with the first geographic location;

identifying, by executing an instruction with the processor, a demographic profile associated with the geographic area; and

associating, by executing an instruction with the processor, the demographic profile with the media device.

2. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the associating of the demographic profile with the media device includes:

accessing demographic information including a plurality of geographic areas; and

matching the home location to the geographic area in the demographic information.

3. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the associating of the demographic profile with the media device includes linking a reference code corresponding to the demographic profile to an identifier of the media device.

4. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the associating of the demographic profile with the media device includes linking the demographic profile to an electronic record including the media device.

5. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of Internet Protocol addresses is associated with a respective location.

6. The method as defined in claim 1, further including:

compiling Internet Protocol addresses assigned to media devices associated with panel members associated with the geographic area;

associating the respective ones of the media devices with corresponding identifiers; and

determining total market usage of a first type of media device for the geographic area based on a number of the identifiers associated with the first type of media device, a total number of the identifiers for the geographic area, and a population of the geographic area.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining that the first geographic location corresponds to the location of the internet service provider includes matching the first geographic location to a street address associated with the internet service provider.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining that the first geographic location corresponds to the location of the internet service provider includes determining a threshold number of the Internet Protocol addresses are associated with a same street address.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifying of the second geographic location includes determining an average distance between a plurality of media devices and the location associated with the internet service provider.

10. An apparatus comprising:

a receiver to obtain a plurality of Internet Protocol addresses assigned to a media device associated with a panel member; and

an address resolver to;

identify a geographic area corresponding to a home location by;

determining a first one of the plurality of Internet Protocol addresses assigned to the media device that is associated with a larger amount of usage by the media device than a second one of the plurality of Internet Protocol addresses assigned to the media device;

identifying, by executing an instruction with a processor, a first geographic location corresponding to the first one of the plurality of Internet Protocol addresses assigned to the media device; and

in response to determining that the first geographic location corresponds to a location associated with an internet service provider, identifying a second geographic location different than the first geographic location based on the first one of the plurality of Internet Protocol addresses assigned to the media device, the geographic area including the first geographic location and the second geographic location, the second geographic location being associated with a second geographic location identifier different from a first geographic location identifier associated with the first geographic location;

identify a demographic profile associated with the geographic area; and

associate the demographic profile with the media device.

11. The apparatus as defined in claim 10, wherein the address resolver is to associate the demographic profile with the media device by:

accessing demographic information including a plurality of geographic areas; and

matching the home location to the geographic area in the demographic information.

12. The apparatus as defined in claim 10, wherein the address resolver is to associate the demographic profile with the media device by linking a reference code corresponding to the demographic profile to an identifier of the media device.

13. The apparatus as defined in claim 10, wherein the address resolver is to associate the demographic profile with the media device by linking the demographic profile to an electronic recording including the media device.

14. The apparatus as defined in claim 10, wherein each of the plurality of Internet Protocol addresses is associated with a respective location.

15. A tangible machine accessible medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed, cause a machine to at least:

obtain a plurality of Internet Protocol addresses assigned to a media device associated with a panel member;

identify a geographic area corresponding to a home location by;

determining a first one of the plurality of Internet Protocol addresses assigned to the media device that is associated with a larger amount of usage by the media device than a second one of the plurality of Internet Protocol addresses assigned to the media device;

identifying, by executing an instruction with a processor, a first geographic location corresponding to the first one of the plurality of Internet Protocol addresses assigned to the media device; and

in response to determining that the first geographic location corresponds to a location associated with an internet service provider, identifying a second geographic location different than the first geographic location based on the first one of the plurality of Internet Protocol addresses assigned to the media device, the geographic area including the first geographic location and the second geographic location;

identify a demographic profile associated with the geographic area; and

associate the demographic profile with the media device.

16. The tangible machine accessible medium as defined in claim 15, wherein the geographic area is associated with the demographic profile by:

accessing demographic information including a plurality of geographic areas; and

matching the home location to the geographic area in the demographic information.

17. The tangible machine accessible medium as defined in claim 15, wherein the demographic profile is associated with the media device by linking a reference code corresponding to the demographic profile to an identifier of the media device.

18. The tangible machine accessible medium as defined in claim 15, wherein the demographic profile is associated with the media device by linking the demographic profile to an electronic recording including the media device.

19. The tangible machine accessible medium as defined in claim 15, wherein each of the plurality of Internet Protocol addresses is associated with a respective location.

20. The tangible machine accessible medium as defined in claim 15, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the machine to:

compile Internet Protocol addresses assigned to media devices associated with panel members associated with the geographic area;

associate the respective ones of the media devices with a corresponding identifier; and

determine total market usage of a first type of media device for the geographic area based on a number of the identifiers associated with the first type of media device, a total number of the identifiers for the geographic area, and a population of the geographic area.