Methods and apparatus to detect content skipping by a consumer of a recorded program

• US 20040250281A1
• Filed: 01/13/2004
• Published: 12/09/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 04/17/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nielsen Media Research, Inc. (Nielsen Holdings plc)
• Inventors: Feininger, William A., Brown, Scott
• Granted Patent: US 7,248,777 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/58
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2007/1739 the upstream communication being transmitted via a separate link, e.g. telephone line
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4147 PVR [Personal Video Recorder] H04N5/76 takes precedence ; arrangements for broadcast with accumulation-type receivers H04H20/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/440281 by altering the temporal resolution, e.g. by frame skipping television signal recording using magnetic recording on tape for reproducing at a rate different from the recording rate H04N5/783
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44222 Analytics of user selections, e.g. selection of programs or purchase activity monitoring of user selections in data processing systems G06F11/34; arrangements for monitoring the user's behaviour or opinions in broadcast systems H04H60/33
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6175 involving transmission via Internet broadcast-related systems characterised by the transmission system being the Internet H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6187 involving transmission via a telephone network, e.g. POTS
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6582 Data stored in the client, e.g. viewing habits, hardware capabilities, credit card number arrangements where receivers interact with the broadcast H04H20/38
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6587 Control parameters, e.g. trick play commands, viewpoint selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/76 Television signal recording
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/93 Regeneration of the television signal or of selected parts thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/173 with two-way working, e.g. subscriber sending a programme selection signal

Abstract

Methods and apparatus to detect content skipping by a consumer of a recorded program are disclosed. In a disclosed method, a plurality of recording times of sections of a recorded program are stored in association with playback times of the recorded program. Playback intervals between sequential pairs of the playback times are compared with corresponding recording intervals between sequential pairs of the recording times to determine if any portion of the recorded program was not played back in real time.

Claims

1. A method of detecting portions of a recorded program that were not played back in real time comprising:

storing a plurality of recording times of sections of the recorded program in association with playback times of the recorded program; and

comparing playback intervals between sequential pairs of the playback times with corresponding recording intervals between sequential pairs of the recording times to determine if any portion of the recorded program was not played back in real time.

2. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein the plurality of recording times substantially correspond to times at which respective sections of the recorded program are recorded by a local device.

3. A method as defined in claim 1 further comprising storing the recorded program as a plurality of data packets with the recording times stored in headers of the data packets.

4. A method as defined in claim 3 wherein each of the recording times is stored in association with at least one respective packet.

5. A method as defined in claim 3 wherein storing the plurality of recording times of sections of the recorded program in association with playback times of the recorded program further comprises:

retrieving a recording time from a header of a data packet being played back; and

storing the recording time in association with one of the playback times.

6. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein the playback times substantially correspond to times at which respective sections of the recorded program are played back by a local device.

7. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein storing the plurality of recording times of sections of the recorded program in association with playback times of the recorded program comprises:

creating a plurality of log entry data structures; and

storing respective ones of the playback times in respective ones of the plurality of log entry data structures.

8. A method as defined in claim 7 further comprising storing respective ones of the plurality of recording times in respective ones of the plurality of log entry data structures.

9. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein storing the plurality of recording times of sections of the recorded program in association with playback times of the recorded program comprises:

creating a plurality of log entry data structures; and

storing respective ones of the recording times in respective ones of the plurality of log entry data structures.

10. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein, if a playback interval is different than a corresponding one of the recording intervals, then a portion of the recorded program at least partially corresponding to the recording interval was not played back in real time.

11. A method as defined in claim 10 further comprising identifying the portion of the recorded program that was not played back in real time.

12. A method as defined in claim 11 wherein identifying the portion of the recorded program that was not played back in real time comprises:

comparing a start time of the recording interval associated with the portion of the recorded program that was not played back in real time to known start times associated with segments of the recorded program;

comparing an end time of the recording interval associated with the portion of the recorded program that was not played back in real time to known end times associated with segments of the recorded program; and

if the start time of the recording interval associated with the portion of the recorded program that was not played back in real time substantially matches the known start time of a first segment, and the end time of the recording interval associated with the portion of the recorded program that was not played back in real time substantially matches the known end time of the first segment, identifying the first segment as the portion of the recorded program that was not played back in real time.

13. A method as defined in claim 12 wherein if the start time of the recording interval associated with the portion of the recorded program that was not played back in real time substantially matches the known start time of the first segment, and the end time of the recording interval associated with the portion of the recorded program that was not played back in real time substantially matches the known end time of a second segment, identifying the first segment, the second segment and any segments between the first and second segments as the portion of the recorded program that was not played back in real time.

14. A method as defined in claim 12 wherein the start times and the end times of the recording interval associated with the portion of the recorded program that was not played back in real time are normalized to a broadcast duration of the recorded program.

15. A method as defined in claim 11 wherein identifying the portion of the recorded program that was not played back in real time comprises:

comparing the recording interval associated with the portion of the recorded program that was not played back in real time to known intervals associated with segments of the recorded program; and

if the recording interval associated with the portion of the recorded program that was not played back in real time overlaps with at least a predetermined amount of at least one of the known intervals, identifying at least one segment associated with the at least one of the known intervals as the portion of the recorded program that was not played back in real time.

16. A method as defined in claim 15 wherein the recording interval associated with the portion of the recorded program that was not played back in real time is normalized to a broadcast duration of the recorded program.

17. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein the recorded program is recorded on a local recording device from a broadcast signal.

18. A method as defined in claim 17 wherein the local recording device comprises at least one of:

a digital video recorder, a set top box, a personal video recorder, and an analog video recorder.

19. A method as defined in claim 1 further comprising storing at least one of:

(a) a channel identifier, (b) a broadcast station identifier, (c) an input source code, (d) a program identifier, (e) a name of the recorded program, (f) a universal network identifier, (g) a universal program identifier, (h) a digital recording device serial number, (i) a tuner identification number, and (j) a playback mode code in association with the playback time.

20. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein (a) if a recording interval is zero, then playback was paused for a duration of the corresponding playback interval, (b) if a recording interval has a first sign, then a corresponding portion of the recorded program was played at a rate different than real time, and (c) if a recording interval has a second sign opposite the first sign, then a rewind event has occurred.

21. A method as defined in claim 11 wherein if a first portion of the recorded program is identified as having been skipped, and a second portion of the recorded program is identified as having been rewound, comparing the first and second portions to determine if at least a segment of the first portion was viewed with the second portion of the recorded program.

22. A method as defined in claim 1 further comprising transmitting at least some of the recording times to a collection facility, and wherein comparing playback intervals between sequential pairs of the playback times with corresponding recording intervals between sequential pairs of the recording times to determine if a portion of the recorded program was not played back in real time is performed at the collection facility.

23. A method as defined in claim 22 further comprising transmitting at least some of the playback times to the collection facility.

24. An article of manufacture storing machine readable instructions which, when executed, cause a machine to:

store a plurality of recording times of sections of a recorded program in association with playback times of the recorded program; and

compare playback intervals between sequential pairs of the playback times with corresponding recording intervals between sequential pairs of the recording times to determine if any portion of the recorded program was not played back in real time.

25. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 24 wherein the plurality of recording times substantially correspond to times at which respective sections of the recorded program are recorded by a local device.

26. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 24 wherein the machine readable instructions cause the machine to store the plurality of recording times as a plurality of data packets with the recording times stored in headers of the data packets.

27. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 26 wherein the machine readable instruction cause the machine to store each of the recording times in association with at least one respective packet.

28. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 26 wherein the machine readable instructions cause the machine to store the plurality of recording times of the sections of the recorded program in association with the playback times of the recorded program by:

retrieving a recording time from a header of a data packet being played back; and

storing the recording time in association with one of the plurality of playback times.

29. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 24 wherein the playback times substantially correspond to times at which respective sections of the recorded program are played.

30. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 24 wherein the machine readable instructions cause the machine to store the plurality of recording times of the sections of the recorded program in association with the playback times of the recorded program by:

creating a plurality of log entry data structures; and

storing respective ones of the playback times in respective ones of the plurality of log entry data structures.

31. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 30 wherein the machine readable instructions cause the machine to store respective ones of the plurality of recording times in respective ones of the plurality of log entry data structures.

32. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 24 wherein the machine readable instructions cause the machine to store the plurality of recording times of the sections of the recorded program in association with the playback times of the recorded program by:

creating a plurality of log entry data structures; and

storing respective ones of the recording times in respective ones of the plurality of log entry data structures.

33. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 24 wherein, if a playback interval is different than a corresponding one of the recording intervals, then a portion of the recorded program corresponding to the recording interval was not played back in real time.

34. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 33 wherein the machine readable instructions cause the machine to identify the portion of the recorded program that was not played back in real time.

35. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 34 wherein the machine readable instructions cause the machine to identify the portion of the recorded program that was not played back in real time by:

comparing a start time of the recording interval associated with the portion of the recorded program that was not played back in real time to known start times associated with segments of the recorded program;

comparing an end time of the recording interval associated with the portion of the recorded program that was not played back in real time to known end times associated with segments of the recorded program; and

if the start time of the recording interval associated with the portion of the recorded program that was not played back in real time substantially matches the known start time of a first segment, and the end time of the recording interval associated with the portion of the recorded program that was not played back in real time substantially matches the known end time of the first segment, identifying the first segment as the portion of the recorded program that was not played back in real time.

36. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 35 wherein if the start time of the recording interval associated with the portion of the recorded program that was not played back in real time substantially matches the known start time of the first segment, and the end time of the recording interval associated with the portion of the recorded program that was not played back in real time substantially matches the known end time of a second segment, identifying the first segment, the second segment and any segments between the first and second segments as the portion of the recorded program that was not played back in real time.

37. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 35 wherein the start times and the end times of the recording interval associated with the portion of the recorded program that was not played back in real time are normalized to a broadcast duration of the recorded program.

38. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 34 wherein the machine readable instructions cause the machine to identify the portion of the recorded program that was not played back in real time by:

comparing the recording interval associated with the portion of the recorded program that was not played back in real time to known intervals associated with segments of the recorded program; and

if the recording interval associated with the portion of the recorded program that was not played back in real time overlaps with at least a predetermined amount of one of the known intervals, identifying at least one segment associated with the at least one of the known intervals as the portion of the recorded program that was not played back in real time.

39. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 38 wherein the recording interval associated with the portion of the recorded program that was not played back in real time is normalized to a broadcast duration of the recorded program.

40. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 24 wherein the recorded program is recorded on a local recording device from a broadcast signal.

41. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 40 wherein the local recording device comprises at least one of:

a digital video recorder, a set top box, a personal video recorder, and an analog video recorder.

42. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 24 wherein the machine readable instructions cause the machine to store at least one of:

(a) a channel identifier, (b) a broadcast station identifier, (c) an input source code, (d) a program identifier, (e) a name of the recorded program, (f) a universal network identifier, (g) a universal program identifier, (h) a digital recording device serial number, (i) a tuner identification number, and (j) a playback mode code in association with the playback time.

43. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 24 wherein (a) if a recording interval is zero, then playback was paused for a duration of the corresponding playback interval, (b) if a recording interval has a first sign, then a corresponding portion of the recorded program was played at a rate different than real time, and (c) if a recording interval has a second sign opposite the first sign, then a rewind event has occurred.

44. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 34 wherein if a first portion of the recorded program is identified as having been skipped, and a second portion of the recorded program is identified as having been rewound, the machine readable instructions cause the machine to compare the first and second portions to determine if at least a segment of the first portion was viewed with the second portion of the recorded program.

45. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 24 wherein the machine readable instructions further cause the machine to transmit at least some of the recording times to a collection facility, and wherein the machine readable instructions that cause the machine to compare playback intervals between sequential pairs of the playback times with corresponding recording intervals between sequential pairs of the recording times to determine if a portion of the recorded program was not played back in real time are executed at a collection facility.

46. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 45 wherein the machine readable instructions further cause the machine to transmit at least some of the playback times to the collection facility.

47. An apparatus to detect portions of a recorded program that were not played back in real time comprising:

a time stamper to record a plurality of recording times in association with a recorded program;

a memory to store the recorded program; and

a presentation time retriever to retrieve the recording time of a section of the recorded program being played back and to store the retrieved recording time in association with a playback time.

48. An apparatus as defined in claim 47 wherein the playback time is provided by the time stamper.

49. An apparatus as defined in claim 47 wherein the recorded program is stored as a plurality of packets, and the time stamper records the recording times in headers of the packets.

50. An apparatus as defined in claim 47 further comprising:

an interval detector to identify recording intervals between successive ones of the plurality of recording times; and

a difference detector to determine if a difference exists between a recording interval and a playback interval.

51. An apparatus as defined in claim 50 further comprising a non-real time content identifier responsive to a detected difference between the recording interval and the playback interval to identify a portion of the recorded program that was not played back in real time.

52. An apparatus as defined in claim 47 wherein the plurality of recording times substantially correspond to times at which respective sections of the recorded program are recorded by a local device.

53. An apparatus as defined in claim 47 wherein the recorded program is stored in the memory as a plurality of data packets, and the recording times are stored in headers of the data packets.

54. An apparatus as defined in claim 53 wherein each of the recording times is stored in association with at least one respective packet.

55. An apparatus as defined in claim 47 wherein the playback time substantially corresponds to a time at which the section of the recorded program is played.

56. An apparatus as defined in claim 47 wherein the playback time is stored in a log entry data structure.

58. An apparatus as defined in claim 47 wherein the presentation time retriever stores the retrieved recording time in association with a playback time by storing the retrieved recording time in a log entry data structure representative of a playback time.

59. An apparatus as defined in claim 50 wherein, if the difference detector detects a difference between a playback interval and one of the recording intervals, then a portion of the recorded program corresponding to the one of the recording intervals was not played back in real time.

60. An apparatus as defined in claim 51 wherein the non-real time content identifier identifies the portion of the recorded program that was not played back in real time by:

comparing a start time of the recording interval associated with the portion of the recorded program that was not played back in real time to known start times associated with segments of the recorded program;

comparing an end time of the recording interval associated with the portion of the recorded program that was not played back in real time to known end times associated with segments of the recorded program; and

if the start time of the recording interval associated with the portion of the recorded program that was not played back in real time substantially matches the known start time of a first segment, and the end time of the recording interval associated with the portion of the recorded program that was not played back in real time substantially matches the known end time of the first segment, the non-real time content identifier identifies the first segment as the portion of the recorded program that was not played back in real time.

61. An apparatus as defined in claim 60 wherein if the start time of the recording interval associated with the portion of the recorded program that was not played back in real time substantially matches the known start time of the first segment, and the end time of the recording interval associated with the portion of the recorded program that was not played back in real time substantially matches the known end time of a second segment, the non-real time content identifier identifies the first segment, the second segment and any segments between the first and second segments as the portion of the recorded program that was not played back in real time.

62. An apparatus as defined in claim 60 wherein the start times and the end times of the recording interval associated with the portion of the recorded program that was not played back in real time are normalized to a broadcast duration of the recorded program.

63. An apparatus as defined in claim 51 wherein the non-real time content identifier identifies the portion of the recorded program that was not played back in real time by:

comparing the recording interval associated with the portion of the recorded program that was not played back in real time to known intervals associated with segments of the recorded program; and

if the recording interval associated with the portion of the recorded program that was not played back in real time overlaps with at least a predetermined amount of at least one of the known intervals, identifying at least one segment associated with the at least one of the known intervals as the portion that was not played back in real time.

64. An apparatus as defined in claim 63 wherein the recording interval associated with the portion of the recorded program that was not played back in real time is normalized to a broadcast duration of the recorded program.

65. An apparatus as defined in claim 47 wherein the recorded program is recorded on a local recording device from a broadcast signal.

66. An apparatus as defined in claim 65 wherein the local recording device comprises at least one of:

a digital video recorder, a set top box, a personal video recorder, and an analog video recorder.

67. An apparatus as defined in claim 47 wherein the presentation time retriever stores at least one of:

(a) a channel identifier, (b) a broadcast station identifier, (c) an input source code, (d) a program identifier, (e) a name of the recorded program, (f) a universal network identifier, (g) a universal program identifier, (h) a digital recording device serial number, (i) a tuner identification number, and (j) a playback mode code in association with the playback time.

68. An apparatus as defined in claim 47 wherein (a) if a recording interval is zero, then playback was paused for a duration of the corresponding playback interval, (b) if a recording interval has a first sign, then a corresponding portion of the recorded program was played at a rate different than real time, and (c) if a recording interval has a second sign opposite the first sign, then a rewind event has occurred.

69. An apparatus as defined in claim 51 further comprising a recapture identifier to determine if a portion of the recorded program that was passed at a rate greater than real time was viewed in real time as a result of rewinding the recorded program.

70. An apparatus as defined in claim 69 wherein at least one of the time stamper, the memory and the presentation time retriever are located at a monitored home, and at least one of the interval detector, the difference detector, the non-real time content identifier, and the recapture identifier are located at at least one of a collection facility and a data logging device.

57. An apparatus as defined in claim 57 wherein the presentation time retriever stores the retrieved recording time in a log entry data structure.

71. A method of developing usage data with respect to a recorded program comprising:

storing recording times in association with recorded sections of the recorded program;

playing back at least one of the recorded sections;

retrieving the recording time associated with the at least one of the recorded sections; and

recording the retrieved recording time of the at least one of the recorded sections in association with a playback time of the at least one of the recorded sections.

72. A method of identifying a portion of a recorded program that was not played in real time comprising:

computing a first difference between a first recording time and a second recording time; and

comparing the first difference to a second difference between a first playback time and a second playback time to determine if a portion of the recorded program associated with the first difference was played in real time.

73. A method as defined in claim 72 further comprising computing the second difference between the first playback time and the second playback time.

74. A method as defined in claim 72 further comprising receiving a first data structure containing the first playback time and the first recording time.

75. A method as defined in claim 74 further comprising receiving a second data structure containing the second playback time and the second recording time.

76. A method as defined in claim 72 wherein, if the second difference is larger than the first difference, a portion of the recorded program was at least one of skipped and fast forwarded.

77. An apparatus to detect portions of a recorded program that were not played in real time comprising:

an interval detector to compute a recording interval between a first recording time and a second recording time; and

a difference detector to compare a playback interval and the recording interval to determine if the recording interval is indicative of real time playback of a corresponding portion of the recorded program.

78. An apparatus as defined in claim 77 wherein the playback interval is a difference between a first playback time and a second playback time.

79. An apparatus as defined in claim 78 wherein the playback interval is computed by the interval detector.

80. An apparatus as defined in claim 77 further comprising a non-real time content identifier to identify the corresponding portion of the recorded program that was not played back in real time.

81. A method for generating a playback information log file entry, comprising:

storing a timestamp in a log file when a stored broadcast is played back;

storing a recording time of the stored broadcast in the log file; and

storing a program identifier in the log file.

82. A method as defined in claim 81 wherein the log file stores at least one of:

(a) a broadcast channel number, (b) an input source code for the stored broadcast, (c) a station name for a station that broadcast the stored broadcast, (d) a program name for the stored broadcast, (e) a universal station identifier for the station that broadcast the stored broadcast, (f) a universal network identifier, (g) a universal program identifier, (h) a digital recording device serial number, (i) a tuner identification number, and (j) a playback mode code for the stored broadcast.

83. An apparatus to identify a portion of a recorded program that was not played in real time comprising:

at least one processor;

a memory coupled to the at least one processor and storing machine readable instructions which, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to;

compute a first difference between a first recording time and a second recording time; and

compare the first difference to a second difference between a first playback time and a second playback time to determine if a portion of the recorded program associated with the first difference was played in real time.