VARIABLE ENCODING AND DETECTION APPARATUS AND METHODS

• US 20080101454A1
• Filed: 09/07/2007
• Published: 05/01/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 01/23/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nielsen & Company Incorporated (MOOD Media Corporation), The Nielsen Company (US), LLC (Nielsen Holdings plc), Nielsen Company (US) LLC (RR Donnelley & Sons Company)
• Original Assignee: Nielsen Company (US) LLC (RR Donnelley & Sons Company)
• Inventors: Luff, Robert, Headley, Weston
• Granted Patent: US 8,406,341 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 375/240
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 17/00 Diagnosis, testing or measuring for television systems or their details
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/00 Methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2343 involving reformatting operations of video signals for distribution or compliance with end-user requests or end-user device requirements video transcoding H04N19/40; media packet handling at the source H04L65/762
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234309 by transcoding between formats or standards, e.g. from MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 or from Quicktime to Realvideo conversion of standards in analog television systems H04N7/01
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2383 Channel coding or modulation of digital bit-stream, e.g. QPSK modulation arrangements for detecting or preventing errors in the information received by adapting the channel coding H04L1/0009; analogue front ends or means for connecting modulators, demodulators or transceivers to a transmission line H04L27/0002
• 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 21/4348 Demultiplexing of additional data and video streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4382 Demodulation or channel decoding, e.g. QPSK demodulation analog front ends or means for connecting modulators, demodulators or transceivers to a transmission line H04L27/0002
• 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 7/17309 Transmission or handling of upstream communications

Abstract

Apparatus, methods, and articles of manufacture for media monitoring are disclosed. In particular, the example apparatus, methods, and articles of manufacture determine a media source type associated with a media signal and select an encoding or decoding mode based on the media source type. An encoding operation encodes the media signal using the selected encoding mode and a decoding operation decodes the media signal using the selected decoding mode.

Claims

1. A method of encoding a media signal, comprising:

determining a media source type associated with a media signal;

selecting an encoding mode that uses a code having a power level that is based on the media source type; and

encoding the media signal with a code using the selected encoding mode.

2. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the media source type is a television source, a radio source, or a computer source.

3. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the media source type is at least one of an over-the-air broadcast signal, a cable broadcast signal, a satellite broadcast signal, an analog signal, or a digital signal.

4. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein determining the media source type comprises extracting a broadcast station code from the media signal.

6. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein selecting the encoding mode that uses a code having a power level that is based on the media source type comprises selecting an encoding mode that uses a relatively high power level code or a relatively low power level code.

7. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein selecting the encoding mode that uses a code having a power level that is based on the media source type comprises selecting an encoding mode uses a code having a first power level or a second power level greater than the first power level.

8. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein encoding the media signal with the code comprises generating the code to have a predetermined frequency spectrum.

5. (canceled)

9. (canceled)

10. (canceled)

11. (canceled)

12. (canceled)

13. (canceled)

14. (canceled)

15. (canceled)

16. (canceled)

17. A method of decoding a media signal, comprising:

determining a physical environment type associated with the media signal;

selecting a decoding mode based on the physical environment type; and

decoding a code from the media signal using the selected decoding mode.

20. A method as defined in claim 17, wherein determining the environment type comprises determining that the physical environment type is an in-home environment or an out-of-home environment.

21. A method as defined in claim 17, wherein determining the physical environment type comprises analyzing acoustic characteristics of the physical environment based on the media signal.

22. A method as defined in claim 17, wherein determining the physical environment type comprises analyzing a frequency spectrum or a signal amplitude of the media signal.

23. A method as defined in claim 17, wherein determining the physical environment type comprises extracting the code from the media signal and analyzing characteristics of the code.

24. A method as defined in claim 23, wherein analyzing the characteristics of the code comprises at least one of analyzing a power level of the code, analyzing a frequency spectrum of the code, or comparing the code to information stored in a database.

25. A method as defined in claim 17, wherein determining the physical environment type comprises extracting a plurality of codes from the media signal and comparing at least one of the extracted codes to another one of the extracted codes.

26. A method as defined in claim 17, wherein determining the physical environment type comprises obtaining via a portable metering device a base metering device identification code emitted by a base metering device.

27. A method as defined in claim 17, wherein selecting a decoding mode comprises selecting a code detection threshold.

28. A method as defined in claim 27, wherein the code detection threshold is at least one of an amplitude threshold or a frequency threshold.

29. A method as defined in claim 17, wherein selecting a decoding mode comprises adjusting a gain setting of an automatic gain control circuit.

18. (canceled)

19. (canceled)

30. (canceled)

31. A method as defined in claim 30, wherein determining whether to obtain the media signal via the portable metering device or the base metering device comprises determining that the portable metering device and the base metering device are located within different rooms of a household.

32. A method as defined in claim 30, wherein determining whether to obtain the media signal via the portable metering device or the base metering device comprises:

emitting a plurality of presence codes via the portable metering device; and

determining that the amount of time since the base metering device last received a presence code from the portable metering device is greater than a time threshold.

33. (canceled)

34. (canceled)

35. (canceled)

36. (canceled)

37. (canceled)

38. (canceled)

39. (canceled)

40. (canceled)

41. (canceled)

42. (canceled)

43. (canceled)

44. (canceled)

45. (canceled)

46. (canceled)

47. (canceled)

48. (canceled)

49. A method of tagging collected media monitoring information, comprising:

extracting media monitoring information from a media signal;

determining if the media monitoring information is complete; and

tagging the media monitoring information based on whether it is complete.

51. A method as defined in claim 49, wherein determining if the media monitoring information is complete comprises:

identifying at least one data field of the media monitoring information; and

determining if the at least one data field contains corrupt information or incomplete information.

52. A method as defined in claim 49, wherein tagging the media monitoring information comprises tagging the media monitoring information with at least one of in-home identification information or out-of-home identification information.

53. A method as defined in claim 49, wherein the media monitoring information comprises a code.

54. A method as defined in claim 49, wherein determining if the monitoring information is complete comprises determining if at least one tier of a multi-tier time stamp is missing.

50. (canceled)

55. (canceled)

56. (canceled)

57. (canceled)

58. (canceled)

59. (canceled)