Methods and systems for gathering market research data inside and outside commercial establishments

• US 20050243784A1
• Filed: 03/29/2005
• Published: 11/03/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Arbitron Inc. (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Inventors: Neuhauser, Alan R., Crystal, Jack C., Jensen, James M., Flanagan, Eugene L. III, Forr, David Patrick, Fitzgerald, Joan
• Granted Patent: US 7,420,464 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/338
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 11/00 Arrangements, systems or apparatus for checking, e.g. the occurrence of a condition, not provided for elsewhere
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/28 the pass enabling tracking or indicating presence

Abstract

Methods and systems for tracking movements of participants in a market research study, for example, outside retail establishments, are provided. The methods and systems employ portable monitors carried on the persons of the participants to gather location data.

Claims

1. A portable monitor for use in a market research study for monitoring travel and retail establishment visiting patterns of participants in the market research study, comprising:

a wireless receiver operative to receive one or more position signals and to supply position data corresponding to the one or more position signals;

storage operative to store venue of interest data representing locations of venues of interest pertinent to the market research study;

a processor operative to process the position data to ascertain a current location of the portable monitor, to assess whether the portable monitor is within a predetermined proximity to at least one of the venues of interest based upon the ascertained current location of the portable monitor and the venue of interest data stored in the storage, and to generate, when the processor assesses that the portable monitor is within the predetermined proximity to said at least one of the venues of interest, a record including data representative of the respective venue of interest and time data representative of a time at which the portable monitor is within the predetermined proximity to the respective venue of interest.

2. The portable monitor of claim 1, wherein the storage is operative to store venue of interest data representing locations of entrances of retail establishments pertinent to the market research study.

3. The portable monitor of claim 1, wherein the storage is operative to store venue of interest data representing locations of outdoor advertisements pertinent to the market research study.

4. The portable monitor of claim 1, wherein the storage is operative to store venue of interest data representative of both locations of entrances of retail establishments pertinent to the market research study and locations of outdoor advertisements pertinent to the market research study.

5. The portable monitor of claim 1, wherein the processor is operative to ascertain a time when the portable monitor enters the respective venue of interest, and the record generated corresponding to the respective venue of interest includes time entry data representative of the ascertained time.

6. The portable monitor of claim 1, wherein the processor is operative to ascertain an amount of time the portable monitor is disposed within the respective venue of interest, and the record generated corresponding to the respective venue of interest includes duration of visit data representative of the ascertained amount of time.

7. The portable monitor of claim 6, wherein the processor is operative to ascertain the amount of time the portable monitor is disposed within the respective venue of interest by utilizing an amount of time the wireless receiver does not receive one or more position signals sufficient to enable the processor to ascertain the current location of the portable monitor.

8. The portable monitor of claim 1, wherein the processor is operative to ascertain a departure time when the portable monitor departs the respective venue of interest, and the record generated corresponding to the respective venue of interest includes data representative of the ascertained departure time.

9. The portable monitor of claim 1, wherein the processor is operative to ascertain an amount of time the portable monitor remains outside but within the predetermined proximity to the respective venue of interest, and the record generated corresponding to the respective venue of interest includes time data representative of the ascertained time.

10. The portable monitor of claim 1, wherein the wireless receiver is operative to receive said one or more position signals from one or more satellite sources.

11. The portable monitor of claim 1, wherein the processor is operative to control the wireless receiver to function so that the wireless receiver supplies position data that enables the processor to ascertain the current location of the portable monitor to a first degree of accuracy when the portable monitor is not within the predetermined proximity to any of the venues of interest, and to control the wireless receiver to function so that the wireless receiver supplies position data that enables the processor to ascertain the current location of the portable monitor to a second degree of accuracy when the portable monitor is within the predetermined proximity to at least one of the venues of interest, the second degree of accuracy being substantially higher than the first degree of accuracy.

12. The portable monitor of claim 1, further comprising an inertial monitoring unit for calibrating the location ascertained by the processor.

13. The portable monitor of claim 1, further comprising a receiver adapted to receive new venue of interest data representing locations of venues of interest during use of the portable monitor by a participant in the market research study, the new venue of interest data being substantially different from the venue of interest data stored in the storage;

and wherein the storage is operative to replace previously stored venue of interest data with the new venue of interest data received by the receiver.

14. The portable monitor of claim 1, further comprising an output device operative to download data representative of each generated record to a market research company for subsequent generation of reports relating to the travel patterns of the participants in the market research study.

15. A method for monitoring travel and retail establishment visiting patterns of participants in a market research study, comprising:

providing a portable monitor to each of a plurality of participants in the market research study, the portable monitor adapted to be carried on the person of one of the participants, and containing a wireless receiver operative to receive one or more position signals, and containing a storage operative to store venue of interest data representing locations of venues of interest pertinent to the market research study;

ascertaining a current location of the portable monitor based upon the received one or more position signals;

assessing whether the portable monitor is within a predetermined proximity to at least one of the venues of interest represented by the venue of interest data;

generating a record including data representative of the respective venue of interest to which the portable monitor is disposed within the predetermined proximity and time data representative of a time when the portable monitor is assessed to be disposed within the predetermined proximity of the respective venue of interest.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the assessing step is carried out by ascertaining a time when the portable monitor enters a retail establishment represented by one of the venues of interest, and the generating step is carried out by generating a record including data representative of the entered retail establishment and time data representative of the ascertained time when the portable monitor entered the retail establishment.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising ascertaining a direction of travel of the portable monitor, and ascertaining that the portable monitor entered a retail establishment represented by one of the venues of interest based upon the ascertained direction of travel, the ascertained current location of the portable monitor and the location of the retail establishment.

18. The method of claim 15, further comprising ascertaining an amount of time the portable monitor is disposed within a retail establishment represented by one of the venues of interest, and the generated record includes duration of visit data representative of the ascertained amount of time.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the ascertaining an amount of time step includes utilizing an amount of time the wireless receiver does not receive one or more position signals necessary to ascertain the current location of the portable monitor.

20. The method of claim 15, further comprising ascertaining an amount of time the portable monitor remains outside but within the predetermined proximity to a retail establishment represented by one of the venues of interest.

21. The method of claim 15, wherein the wireless receiver is operative to receive the one or more position signals from one or more satellite sources.

22. The method of claim 15, wherein the ascertaining step is carried out by ascertaining the current location of the portable monitor to a first degree of accuracy when the portable monitor is not within the predetermined proximity to any of the venues of interest, and ascertaining the current location of the portable monitor to a second degree of accuracy when the portable monitor is within the predetermined proximity to at least one of the venues of interest, the second degree of accuracy being substantially higher than the first degree of accuracy.

23. The method of claim 15, further comprising calibrating the ascertained current location using an inertial monitoring unit within the portable monitor.

24. The method of claim 15, further comprising receiving by the portable monitor, during use by a participant in the market research study, new venue of interest data representing locations of venues of interest, the new venue of interest data being substantially different from the venue of interest data stored in the storage;

and replacing by the portable monitor the venue of interest data in the storage with the new venue of interest data.

25. The method of claim 15, further comprising the steps of downloading data representative of each generated record from the portable monitor to a market research company;

and generating from the downloaded data one or more reports relating to the travel patterns of the participants in the market research study.

26. A portable monitor for use in a market research study for monitoring retail establishment visiting patterns of participants in the market research study, comprising:

a wireless receiver operative to receive one or more position signals and to supply position data corresponding to the one or more position signals; and

a processor operative to process the position data to ascertain a current location of the portable monitor, to assess whether the portable monitor is within a predetermined proximity to at least one of a plurality of retail establishments pertinent to the market research study, and to generate a record of a visit to the retail establishment if the wireless receiver is unable to receive position signals sufficient to enable the processor to ascertain the current location of the portable monitor after the processor assesses that the portable monitor is within the predetermined proximity to the retail establishment, the generated record including data representative of the retail establishment and time data representing a time the portable monitor entered the retail establishment.

27. The portable monitor of claim 26, wherein the processor is further operative to ascertain an amount of time the portable monitor is disposed within the retail establishment based upon an amount of time the wireless receiver is unable to receive one or more position signals sufficient to enable the processor to ascertain the current location of the portable monitor, and the generated record includes data representative of the ascertained amount of time.

28. The portable monitor of claim 26, wherein the processor is operative to ascertain a direction of travel of the portable monitor, and is operative to ascertain a retail establishment to which the portable monitor entered in accordance with the ascertained direction of travel of the portable monitor when the wireless receiver is unable to receive one or more position signals sufficient to enable the processor to ascertain the current location of the portable monitor.

29. The portable monitor of claim 26, further comprising storage operative to store venue of interest data representing locations of the retail establishments pertinent to the market research study;

and wherein the processor is operative to assess whether the portable monitor is within a predetermined proximity to at least one of the retail establishments based upon the ascertained current location of the portable monitor and the venue of interest data stored in the storage.

30. A portable monitor for use in a market research study for monitoring travel and retail establishment visiting patterns of participants in the market research study, comprising:

a wireless receiver operatively controlled to receive one or more position signals and to supply position data corresponding to the one or more position signals;

storage operative to store venue of interest data representing locations of venues of interest pertinent to the market research study;

a processor operative to control the wireless receiver to receive said one or more position signals at a first rate in a first mode of operation, and to control the wireless receiver to receive said one or more position signals at a second rate in a second mode of operation, the second rate being substantially higher than the first rate, to process the position data to ascertain a current location of the portable monitor, to assess whether the portable monitor is within a predetermined proximity to at least one of the venues of interest based upon the ascertained current location of the portable monitor and the venue of interest data, and to generate, when the processor assesses that the portable monitor is within the predetermined proximity to at least one of the venues of interest, a record including data representative of the respective venue of interest to which the portable monitor is within the predetermined proximity and time data representative of a time when the portable monitor is within the predetermined proximity to the respective venue of interest.

31. The portable monitor of claim 30, wherein the processor is operative to operate in the first mode of operation when the processor assesses that the portable monitor is not within the predetermined proximity to any of the venues of interest, and is operative to operate in the second mode of operation when the processor assesses that the portable monitor is within the predetermined proximity to at least one of the venues of interest.

32. The portable monitor of claim 30, wherein the processor is operative to control the wireless receiver to receive said one or more position signals at a third rate while the wireless receiver is unable to supply position data that enables the processor to ascertain the current location of the portable monitor.

33. The portable monitor of claim 30, wherein the processor is operative to ascertain a current speed of travel of the portable monitor, to operate in the first mode of operation when the ascertained current speed of travel is greater than a predetermined speed, and to operate in the second mode of operation when the ascertained current speed of travel is not greater than the predetermined speed.

34. The portable monitor of claim 30, wherein the storage includes distance data representative of designated distances from each of the venues of interest;

and the processor is operative to operate in the first mode of operation when the processor assesses that the portable monitor is further from each of the venues of interest by the respective designated distance as represented by the stored distance data, and is operative to operate in the second mode of operation when the processor assesses that the portable monitor is not further from at least one of the venues of interest by the respective designated distance.

35. The portable monitor of claim 30, further comprising a receiver operative to receive new venue of interest data representing locations of additional venues of interest;

and wherein the storage is operative to replace previously stored venue of interest data with the new venue of interest data received by the receiver.

36. A method for monitoring travel and retail establishment visiting patterns of participants in a market research study, comprising:

providing a portable monitor to each of a plurality of participants in the market research study, the portable monitor adapted to be carried on the person of one of the participants, and containing a wireless receiver operative to receive one or more position signals, and containing a storage operative to store venue of interest data representing locations of venues of interest pertinent to the market research study;

selecting a rate of operation of the wireless receiver, the rate being selected from at least one of a first rate and a second rate, the second rate being substantially higher than the first rate;

receiving by the wireless receiver one or more position signals at the selected rate of operation;

ascertaining a current location of the portable monitor based upon the received one or more position signals;

assessing whether the ascertained current location is within a predetermined proximity to at least one of the venues of interest represented by the venue of interest data;

generating a record including data representative of the respective venue of interest that the portable monitor is assessed to be within the predetermined proximity and time data representative of a time at which the portable monitor is within the predetermined proximity to the respective venue of interest.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein the selecting step is carried out by selecting the first rate when the portable monitor is not within the predetermined proximity to any of the venues of interest, and by selecting the second rate when the processor assesses that the portable monitor is within the predetermined proximity to at least one of the venues of interest.

38. The method of claim 37, wherein the selecting step is carried out by selecting a third rate substantially different from the first and second rates when the wireless receiver is unable to receive position signals necessary to ascertain the current location of the portable monitor.

39. The method of claim 36, further comprising ascertaining a current speed of travel of the portable monitor, and the step of selecting a rate of operation of the wireless receiver is carried out by selecting the first rate when the ascertained current speed of travel is greater than a predetermined speed, and by selecting the second rate when the ascertained current speed of travel is not greater than the predetermined speed.

40. The method of claim 36, further comprising receiving by the portable monitor new venue of interest data representing locations of additional venues of interest;

and replacing by the portable monitor previously stored venue of interest data with the new venue of interest data.

41. A portable monitor for use in a market research study for monitoring retail establishment visiting patterns of participants in the market research study, comprising:

a first wireless receiver operative to receive one or more position signals of a first type and to supply first position data corresponding to the one or more position signals of the first type;

a second wireless receiver operative to receive one or more position signals of a second type and to supply second position data corresponding to the one or more position signals of the second type;

a processor operative to process the first position data to ascertain a current location of the portable monitor, to assess whether the portable monitor is within a predetermined proximity to at least one of a plurality of retail establishments pertinent to the market research study, to generate a record of a visit to the retail establishment if the first wireless receiver is unable to supply first position data sufficient to enable the processor to ascertain the current location of the portable monitor after the processor assesses that the portable monitor is within the predetermined proximity to the retail establishment, and to track movement of the portable monitor in accordance with the second position data if the first wireless receiver is unable to supply first position data sufficient to enable the processor to ascertain the current location of the portable monitor.

42. The portable monitor of claim 41, wherein the first wireless receiver is operative to receive one or more position signals of a type that cannot substantially be received within establishments of certain types, and the second wireless receiver is operative to receive one or more position signals of a type that can substantially be received within establishments of said certain types.

43. The portable monitor of claim 41, wherein the first wireless receiver is operative to receive one or more position signals from one or more satellite sources, and the second wireless receiver is operative to receive one or more position signals from one or more terrestrial sources.

44. The portable monitor of claim 41, wherein the processor is operative to track movement of the portable monitor in accordance with the second position data if the processor ascertains that the portable monitor is within one of the retail establishments represented by the stored venue of interest data.

45. The portable monitor of claim 44, wherein the processor is operative to generate a record of the portable monitor coming in close proximity to a consumer product represented by said one or more position signals received by the second wireless receiver.

46. The portable monitor of claim 45, wherein the generated record includes a length of time the portable monitor is in close proximity to the consumer product represented by said one or more position signals received by the second wireless receiver.

47. The portable monitor of claim 44, wherein the processor is operative to generate a record of the portable monitor coming within a predetermined proximity to an advertisement inside said one of the retail establishments, the advertisement corresponding to said one or more position signals received by the second wireless receiver.

48. The portable monitor of claim 44, further comprising storage operative to store venue of interest data representing locations of the retail establishments pertinent to the market research study;

and wherein the processor is operative to assess whether the portable monitor is within a predetermined proximity to at least one of the retail establishments based upon the ascertained current location of the portable monitor and the venue of interest data stored in the storage.

49. A method for monitoring travel and retail establishment visiting patterns of participants in a market research study, comprising:

providing a portable monitor to each of a plurality of participants in the market research study, the portable monitor adapted to be carried on the person of one of the participants, the portable monitor containing a first wireless receiver operative to receive one or more position signals of a first type, and a second wireless receiver operative to receive one or more position signals of a second type;

receiving by the first wireless receiver one or more position signals of the first type;

ascertaining a current location of the portable monitor based upon the received one or more position signals of the first type;

assessing whether the portable monitor is within a predetermined proximity to at least one of a plurality of retail establishments pertinent to the market research study;

generating a record of a visit to the retail establishment if, after assessing that the portable monitor is within the predetermined proximity to a retail establishment, the first wireless receiver in the portable monitor is unable to receive one or more position signals of the first type sufficient for the assessing step to ascertain the current location of the portable monitor;

receiving by the second wireless receiver one or more position signals of the second type when the first wireless receiver in the portable monitor is unable to receive one or more position signals of the first type sufficient for the assessing step to ascertain the current location of the portable monitor; and

tracking movement of the portable monitor in accordance with the one or more position signals of the second type received by the second wireless receiver.

50. The method of claim 49, wherein the step of receiving by the first wireless receiver is carried out by receiving one or more position signals of a type that cannot substantially be received within establishments of certain types;

and the step of receiving by the second wireless receiver is carried out by receiving one or more position signals of a type that can substantially be received within establishments of said certain types.

51. The method of claim 49, wherein the step of receiving by the first wireless receiver is carried out by receiving one or more position signals from one or more satellite sources, and the step of receiving by the second wireless receiver is carried out by receiving one or more position signals from one or more terrestrial sources.

52. The method of claim 49, wherein the portable monitor provided to each of the participants in the market research study includes storage operative to store venue of interest data representing locations of the retail establishments pertinent to the market research study;

and the step of assessing whether the portable monitor is within the predetermined proximity to at least one of the retail establishments is carried out by utilizing the ascertained current location of the portable monitor and the venue of interest data stored in the storage.

53. The method of claim 52, wherein the step of tracking movement of the portable monitor is carried out when the portable monitor is within one of the retail establishments represented by the stored venue of interest data.

54. The method of claim 53, wherein the step of tracking movement of the portable monitor includes generating a record of the portable monitor coming in close proximity to a consumer product represented by said one or more position signals of the second type received by the second wireless receiver.

55. The method of claim 54, further comprising ascertaining a length of time the portable monitor is in close proximity to the consumer product represented by said one or more position signals of the second type received by the second wireless receiver, and the generated record includes the ascertained length of time.

56. The method of claim 53, wherein the step of tracking movement of the portable monitor includes generating a record of the portable monitor coming within a predetermined proximity to an advertisement inside said one of the retail establishments, the advertisement being represented by said one or more position signals of the second type received by the second wireless receiver.

57. A portable monitor for use in a market research study for monitoring travel patterns of participants in the market research study, comprising:

a wireless receiver operative to receive one or more position signals and to supply position data corresponding to the one or more position signals;

storage operative to store venue of interest data pertaining to venues of interest pertinent to the market research study, each venue of interest representing a visually viewable advertisement, the venue of interest data including for at least selected ones of each venue of interest physical attribute data identifying a physical attribute of the visually viewable advertisement represented by the respective venue of interest;

a processor operative;

to process the position data to ascertain a current location of the portable monitor,

to ascertain a portable monitor movement characteristic pertaining to movement of the portable monitor,

to assess whether the portable monitor is within a predetermined proximity to one of the venues of interest;

to determine whether the ascertained portable monitor movement characteristic corresponds to the physical attribute data of said one of the venues of interest, and

to generate, when the ascertained portable monitor movement characteristic corresponds to the physical attribute data of said one of the venues of interest, a record including data representative of the respective venue of interest and time data representative of a time at which the portable monitor is within the predetermined proximity to the respective venue of interest.

58. The portable monitor of claim 57, wherein the physical attribute data identifies a range of speed of travel at which the advertisement represented by the respective venue of interest is perceivable;

the portable monitor movement characteristic relates to a speed of travel of the portable monitor so that the processor is operative to generate the record when the speed of travel of the portable monitor is within the identified range of speed of travel of the respective venue of interest.

59. The portable monitor of claim 58, wherein the physical attribute data relates to a size of the advertisement of the respective venue of interest.

60. The portable monitor of claim 57, wherein the physical attribute data identifies a range of directions of travel at which the advertisement represented by the respective venue of interest is perceivable;

the portable monitor movement characteristic relates to a direction of travel of the portable monitor so that the processor is operative to generate the record when the direction of travel of the portable monitor is within the identified range of direction of travel of the respective venue of interest.

61. The portable monitor of claim 60, wherein the processor is further operative to ascertain a speed of travel of the portable monitor and is operative to generate the record when the direction of travel of the portable monitor is not within the identified range of direction of travel of the respective venue of interest if the ascertained speed of travel of the portable monitor is below a predetermined threshold.

62. The portable monitor of claim 57, wherein the venue of interest data further identifies locations of the venues of interest.

63. A method for monitoring travel patterns of participants in a market research study, comprising:

providing a portable monitor to each of a plurality of participants in the market research study, the portable monitor adapted to be carried on the person of one of the participants, and containing a wireless receiver operative to receive one or more position signals, and containing a storage operative to store venue of interest data pertaining to venues of interest pertinent to the market research study, each venue of interest representing a visually viewable advertisement, the venue of interest data including for at least selected ones of each venue of interest physical attribute data identifying a physical attribute of the visually viewable advertisement represented by the respective venue of interest;

ascertaining a current location of the portable monitor based upon the received one or more position signals;

assessing whether the portable monitor is within a predetermined proximity to at least one of the venues of interest represented by the venue of interest data;

ascertaining a portable monitor movement characteristic pertaining to movement of the portable monitor;

determining whether the ascertained portable monitor movement characteristic corresponds to the physical attribute data of said one of the venues of interest, and

generating, when the ascertained portable monitor movement characteristic corresponds to the physical attribute data of said one of the venues of interest, a record including data representative of the respective venue of interest and time data representative of a time at which the portable monitor is within the predetermined proximity to the respective venue of interest.

64. The method of claim 63, wherein the physical attribute data identifies a range of speed of travel at which the advertisement represented by the respective venue of interest is perceivable;

the portable monitor movement characteristic relates to a speed of travel of the portable monitor; and

the determining step is carried out by determining that the ascertained portable monitor movement characteristic corresponds to the physical attribute data of said one of the venues of interest when the speed of travel of the portable monitor is within the identified range of speed of travel of the respective venue of interest.

65. The method of claim 64, wherein the physical attribute data relates to a size of the advertisement of the respective venue of interest.

66. The method of claim 63, wherein the physical attribute data identifies a range of directions of travel at which the advertisement represented by the respective venue of interest is perceivable;

the portable monitor movement characteristic relates to a direction of travel of the portable monitor; and

the determining step is carried out by determining that the ascertained portable monitor movement characteristic corresponds to the physical attribute data of said one of the venues of interest when the direction of travel of the portable monitor is within the identified range of direction of travel of the respective venue of interest.

67. The method of claim 66, further comprising the step of ascertaining a speed of travel of the portable monitor;

and step of generating a record is further carried out when the direction of travel of the portable monitor is not within the identified range of direction of travel of the respective venue of interest if the ascertained speed of travel of the portable monitor is below a predetermined threshold.

68. The method of claim 63, wherein the venue of interest data further identifies locations of the venues of interest.