System for Automatically Monitoring Viewing Activities of Television Signals

• US 20100169911A1
• Filed: 05/26/2008
• Published: 07/01/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/26/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: ZTE Corporation
• Original Assignee: ZTE Corporation
• Inventors: Zhang, Ji
• Application Number:
  US12/085,754
• Publication Number:
  US 20100169911A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/19
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 2201/90 characterised by the use of signatures
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/59 of video recognising characters or patterns in general G06F18/00, G06V20/00
• 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 21/44008 involving operations for analysing video streams, e.g. detecting features or characteristics in the video stream arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of video in broadcast systems H04H60/59
• 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 7/173 with two-way working, e.g. subscriber sending a programme selection signal

Abstract

A system for automatically monitoring the viewing activities of television signals, comprising a measurement device, in which the television signals are adapted to be communicated to the measurement device and the TV set, making the measurement device receive the same signals as the TV set; the measurement device is adapted to extract a fingerprint data from the television signals displayed to the viewers, making the measurement device measures the same video signals as those being seen by the viewers; a data center to which the fingerprint data is transferred; and a fingerprint matcher to which the television signals which the viewers are selected to watch are sent to be monitored through the measurement device. The system according to the present invention does not require any change to the other devices already in place before the measurement device is introduced into the connections.

Claims

1. A system for automatically monitoring the viewing activities of television signals, comprising

a measurement device, in which the television signals are adapted to be communicated to the measurement device and the TV set, making the measurement device receive the same signals as the TV set;

the measurement device is adapted to extract a fingerprint data from the television signals displayed to the viewers, making the measurement device measures the same video signals as those being seen by the viewers;

a data center to which the fingerprint data is transferred; and

a fingerprint matcher to which the television signals which the viewers are selected to watch are sent to be monitored through the measurement device.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein each measurement device is provided in a viewer residence which is selected by demographics.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the demographics are of the household income level, the age of each household member, the geographic location of the residence, and/or the viewer past viewing habit.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein

the measurement device is connected to the internet to continuously send the fingerprint data to the data center;

a local storage is integrated into the measurement device to temporarily hold the fingerprint data and upload the fingerprint data to the data center on periodic basis;

or

the measurement device is connected to a removable storage onto which the fingerprint data is stored, and the viewers periodically unplug the removable storage and then send it back to the data center.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the measurement devices are typically installed in different areas away from the data center.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the television signals are those of TV programs produced specifically for public distribution, recording of live TV broadcast, movies released on DVDs and video tapes, or personal video recordings with the intention of public distribution.

7. The system of claim 2, wherein the fingerprint matcher receives the fingerprint data from a plurality of measurement devices located in a plurality of viewer residence.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the measurement device receives actual clips of digital video content data, performs the fingerprint extraction, and passes the fingerprint data to the fingerprint matcher and a formatter.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the measurement device, the data center, and the fingerprint matcher are situated in geographically separate locations.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the television signals are arranged in a parallel connection way to be communicated to the measurement device and the TV set.