Monitoring behavior of listening to broadcast

• US 10,135,555 B2
• Filed: 02/17/2017
• Issued: 11/20/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 02/18/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nielsen-CCData Media Research Co., Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Nielsen-CCData Media Research Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: Zhang, Hong, Jia, Hao, Liu, Shijun, Wang, Haiyu
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Duc
• Assistant Examiner(s): Blair, Kile
• Application Number:
  US15/436,260
• Publication Number:
  US 20170243601A1
• Time in Patent Office: 641 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/37 for identifying segments of broadcast information, e.g. scenes or extracting programme ID
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/43 for identifying broadcast channels
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/58 of audio determination or detection of speech characteristics in general G10L25/00; speech recognition in general G10L15/00

Abstract

A device and a method for monitoring behavior of listening to broadcast comprises a transmitter transmitting a characteristic audio signal which is modulated on a carrier signal; a collector collecting an ambient sound; a detector detecting whether the collected ambient sound contains the characteristic audio signal; and a determiner determining whether a broadcast receiving apparatus receives the broadcasting channel corresponding to frequency of the carrier signal according to the result of the detector.

Claims

1. A device for monitoring behavior of listening to broadcast, comprising:

a transmitter transmitting a characteristic audio signal which is modulated on a carrier signal;

a collector collecting an ambient sound;

a detector detecting whether the collected ambient sound contains the characteristic audio signal;

a determiner determining whether a broadcast receiving apparatus receives the broadcasting channel corresponding to frequency of the carrier signal according to the result of the detector; and

a volume determiner determining whether the output volume of the broadcast receiving apparatus is valid in the case that the characteristic audio signal is detected by the detector; and

noticing the determiner to ignore the result of the detector when the output volume is determined as invalid;

wherein when the characteristic audio signal is detected by the detector, the volume determiner compares the volume of a background audio signal in the collected ambient sound except the characteristic audio signal with a reference volume and if the volume of the background audio signal is below the reference volume, the volume determiner determines the output volume of the broadcast receiving apparatus as invalid.

2. The device for monitoring behavior of listening to broadcast according to claim 1, comprising:

a carrier frequency controller controlling the frequency of the carrier signal which is transmitted by the transmitter.

3. The device for monitoring behavior of listening to broadcast according to claim 2, wherein the carrier frequency controller controls the transmitter to transmit carrier signals of various frequency points within FM/AM broadcast band according to a certain frequency interval and in a scanning mode.

4. The device for monitoring behavior of listening to broadcast according to claim 1, wherein the characteristic audio signal is composed of sine waves with different frequencies;

the detector detects whether the collected ambient sound contains a signal with frequency-domain characteristic conforming to the characteristic audio signal, and determines the collected ambient sound as containing the characteristic audio signal if the collected ambient sound contains a signal with frequency-domain characteristic conforming to the characteristic audio signal.

5. The device for monitoring behavior of listening to broadcast according to claim 1, further comprising a user identity identification module and/or a listening time acquisition module;

the user identity identification module receives user identification information within a receiving range of the broadcast receiving apparatus, and identifies the identities of users in the receiving range according to the information;

the listening time acquisition module collects time for listening to a broadcasting channel, provided that the determiner determines that the broadcast receiving apparatus receives the broadcasting channel corresponding to the frequency of the carrier signal.

6. The device for monitoring behavior of listening to broadcast according to claim 5, further comprising:

a communication module, sending the results of the determiner and/or the identified identity of users and/or the collected time for listening to a server for statistical analysis.

7. A device for monitoring behavior of listening to broadcast, comprising:

a transmitter transmitting a characteristic audio signal which is modulated on a carrier signal;

a collector collecting a ambient sound; and

a processor detecting whether the collected ambient sound contains the characteristic audio signals, and determining whether a broadcast receiving apparatus receives the broadcasting channel corresponding to frequency of the carrier signal according to the result of the detecting,

wherein the processor determines whether the output volume of the broadcast receiving apparatus is valid in the case that the characteristic audio signal is detected, and ignores the result of detecting, if the output volume is determined as invalid; and

when the characteristic audio signal is detected, the processor compares the volume of a background audio signal in the collected ambient sound except the characteristic audio signal with a reference volume; and

determines the output volume of the broadcast receiving apparatus as invalid if the volume is below the reference volume.

8. A device for monitoring behavior of listening to broadcast according to claim 7, wherein the processor controls frequency of the carrier signal which is transmitted by the transmitter.

9. A device for monitoring behavior of listening to broadcast according to claim 8, wherein the processor controls the transmitter to transmit carrier signals of various frequency points within FM/AM broadcast band according to a certain frequency interval and in a scanning mode.

10. A device for monitoring behavior of listening, to broadcast according to claim 7, wherein the characteristic audio signal is composed of sine waves with different frequencies;

the processor detects whether the collected ambient sound contains a signal of frequency-domain characteristic conforming to the characteristic audio signal, and determines the collected ambient sound as containing the characteristic audio signal if the collected ambient sound contains a signal of frequency-domain characteristic conforming, to the characteristic audio signal.

11. A device for monitoring behavior of listening to broadcast according to claim 7 wherein the processor identifies users in the receiving range of the broadcast according to the user identification information;

and/or the processor is configured to collect time for listening to a broadcasting channel when determining that the broadcast receiving apparatus receives the broadcasting channel corresponding to frequency of the carrier signal.

12. A device for monitoring behavior of listening to broadcast according to claim 11, further comprising:

a communication module, sending the result of the processor and/or the identified identity of users and/or the collected time for listening to a server for statistical analysis.

13. A method of monitoring behavior of listening to broadcast, comprising:

transmitting a characteristic audio signal which is modulated on a carrier signal;

collecting an ambient sound;

detecting whether the collected ambient sound contains the characteristic audio signal; and

determining whether a broadcast receiving apparatus receives the broadcasting channel corresponding to frequency of the carrier signal according to the result of detecting;

determining whether the output volume of the broadcast receiving apparatus is valid in the case that the characteristic audio signals is detected; and

ignoring the result of detecting if the output volume is determined as invalid;

determining whether the output volume of the broadcast receiving apparatus is valid includes;

comparing the volume of a background audio signals in the collected ambient sound except the characteristic audio signal with a reference volume when the characteristic audio signal is detected;

determining the output volume of the broadcast receiving apparatus as invalid if the volume is below the reference volume.

14. The method of monitoring behavior of listening to broadcast according to claim 13, wherein transmitting a characteristic audio signal which is modulated on a carrier signal includes:

transmitting carrier signals of various frequency paints within FM/AM broadcast hand according to a certain frequency interval and in a scanning mode.