Methods and apparatus to detect spillover in an audience monitoring system

• US 10,219,034 B2
• Filed: 08/20/2018
• Issued: 02/26/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Original Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Inventors: Lee, Morris
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Thang V
• Application Number:
  US16/105,404
• Publication Number:
  US 20180359524A1
• Time in Patent Office: 190 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 3/808 using transducers spaced apart and measuring phase or time difference between signals therefrom, i.e. path-difference systems
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 3/8083 determining direction of source
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25891 being end-user preferences retrieval of video data in a video database based on user preferences G06F16/739; arrangements for recognizing users' preferences H04H60/46; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42203 sound input device, e.g. microphone
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4394 involving operations for analysing the audio stream, e.g. detecting features or characteristics in audio streams arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of audio in broadcast systems H04H60/58
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44204 Monitoring of content usage, e.g. the number of times a movie has been viewed, copied or the amount which has been watched monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; protecting generic digital content where the protection is independent of the precise nature of the content G06F21/10; arrangements for monitoring the use made of the broadcast services in broadcast systems H04H60/31
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44213 Monitoring of end-user related data arrangements for monitoring the users' behaviour or opinions in broadcast systems H04H60/33
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8352 involving content or source identification data, e.g. Unique Material Identifier [UMID]
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 3/005 for combining the signals of two or more microphones specially adapted for hearing aids H04R25/407

Abstract

Methods and apparatus to detect spillover in an audience monitoring system are disclosed. An example apparatus includes an audio sample selector to select first audio samples of a first audio signal received by a first microphone, the first audio signal associated with media; an offset selector to select first offset samples corresponding to a second audio signal received by a second microphone, the second audio signal associated with media, the first offset samples offset from the first audio samples by a first offset value; a cluster analyzer to, if a first count of occurrences of the first offset value satisfies a count threshold, accept the first offset value into a cluster; a weighted averager to calculate a weighted average of a second offset value and the first offset value in the cluster; a direction determiner to determine an origin direction of the media based on the weighted average; and a code reader to, when the origin direction is within a threshold angle, monitor audio codes embedded in the media.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

an audio sample selector to select first audio samples of a first audio signal received by a first microphone, the first audio signal associated with media;

an offset selector to select first offset samples corresponding to a second audio signal received by a second microphone, the second audio signal associated with media, the first offset samples offset from the first audio samples by a first offset value;

a cluster analyzer to, if a first count of occurrences of the first offset value satisfies a count threshold, accept the first offset value into a cluster;

a weighted averager to calculate a weighted average of a second offset value and the first offset value in the cluster;

a direction determiner to determine an origin direction of the media based on the weighted average and

a code reader to, when the origin direction is within a threshold angle, monitor audio codes embedded in the media.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first count is a number of times the first offset value is selected by the offset selector.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the offset selector selects the first offset samples based on a correlation value between the first audio samples and the first offset samples.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the offset selector is to select second offset samples based on a correlation value between second audio samples and the second offset samples, the second offset samples corresponding to the second audio signal, the second offset samples offset from the second audio samples by the second offset value; and

the cluster analyzer is to accept the second offset value if a second count of occurrences of the second offset value satisfies the count threshold.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the weighted averager is further to weight the first offset value based on the first count and weight the second offset value based on the second count.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the count threshold is based on a difference between the first offset value and a third offset value in the cluster.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, further including a signature generator to generate a signature when the origin direction of the media is within the threshold angle, the signature being representative of a characteristic of the media.

8. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions which, when executed, cause a processor to at least:

select first audio samples of a first audio signal received by a first microphone, the first audio signal associated with media;

select first offset samples corresponding to a second audio signal received by a second microphone, the second audio signal associated with media, the first offset samples offset from the first audio samples by a first offset value;

if a first count of occurrences of the first offset value satisfies a count threshold, accept the first offset value into a cluster;

calculate a weighted average of a second offset value and the first offset value in the cluster;

determine an origin direction of the media based on the weighted average; and

when the origin direction is within a threshold angle, monitor audio codes embedded in the media.

9. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein the first count is a number of times the first offset value selected.

10. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8 wherein the first offset samples are selected based a correlation value between the first audio samples and the first offset samples.

11. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the processor to:

select second offset samples based on a correlation value between second audio samples and the second offset samples corresponding to the second audio signal, the second offset samples offset from the second audio samples by the second offset value; and

accept the second offset value if a second count of occurrences of the second offset value satisfies the count threshold.

12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the processor to:

weight the first offset value based on the first count; and

weight the second offset value based on the second count.

13. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein the count threshold is based on a difference between the first offset value and the second offset value.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the processor to generate a signature when the origin direction of the media is within the threshold angle, the signature being representative of a characteristic of the media.

15. An apparatus to distinguish local media from spillover media comprising:

an audio sampler to sample a first audio signal from an audio source received by a first microphone and sample a second audio signal received by a second microphone from the audio source, the second microphone to be separated from the first microphone by a first distance;

a direction detector to calculate an origin direction of the audio source based on a time difference between receipt of the first and second sampled audio signals, the first distance, and a speed of sound; and

a code reader to, when the origin direction is within a threshold angle, detect an audio code embedded in at least one of the first sampled audio signal or the second sampled audio signal, the audio code to be representative of media corresponding to the first and second audio signals, the code reader to ignore the media when the origin direction exceeds the threshold angle.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the audio source is a media device.

17. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the threshold angle is based on a physical location of the audio source.

18. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the threshold angle is based on an orientation of the apparatus and a physical location of the audio source.

19. The apparatus of claim 15, further including a threshold processor to:

remove first samples from the first sampled audio signal based on intensities of the second samples being below a first threshold, the first threshold determined so that a first percentage of the sampled audio signal is below the first threshold; and

remove second samples from the second sampled audio signal based on intensities of the second samples being below a second threshold, the second threshold determined so that a second percentage of the sampled audio signal is below the second threshold.

20. The apparatus of claim 15, further including a signature generator to generate a signature when the origin direction is within the threshold angle, the signature being representative of a characteristic of media corresponding to the first and second audio signal.