PORTABLE MULTI-PURPOSE AUDIENCE MEASUREMENT SYSTEMS, APPARATUS AND METHODS

• US 20110126222A1
• Filed: 01/31/2011
• Published: 05/26/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/17/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nielsen Media Research, Inc. (Nielsen Holdings plc)
• Original Assignee: Nielsen Media Research, Inc. (Nielsen Holdings plc)
• Inventors: Vilches, Glen, Nelson, Dan, Ramaswamy, Arun, Wright, David Howell
• Granted Patent: US 8,539,527 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/14
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/31 Arrangements for monitoring the use made of the broadcast services
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/32 Arrangements for monitoring conditions of receiving stations, e.g. malfunction or breakdown of receiving stations
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/33 Arrangements for monitoring the users' behaviour or opinions
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/37 for identifying segments of broadcast information, e.g. scenes or extracting programme ID
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/45 for identifying users
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/52 of users
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/58 of audio determination or detection of speech characteristics in general G10L25/00; speech recognition in general G10L15/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2407 Monitoring of transmitted content, e.g. distribution time, number of downloads arrangements for monitoring programmes for broadcast or for distribution combined with broadcast H04H20/14
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25883 being end-user demographical data, e.g. age, family status or address arrangements for identifying locations of users in broadcast systems H04H60/52
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41407 embedded in a portable device, e.g. video client on a mobile phone, PDA, laptop constructional details of equipment or arrangements specially adapted for portable computer application G06F1/1626; arrangements specially adapted for mobile receivers in broadcast systems H04H20/57
• 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 21/44224 Monitoring of user activity on external systems, e.g. Internet browsing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access

Abstract

Portable multi-purpose audience measurement systems, apparatus and methods are disclosed. An example method disclosed herein comprises collecting demographic data of a user, including a phone number for a mobile device, via a website associated with an information gathering entity, sending a message to the mobile device, the sent message, when responded to, resulting in downloading of a metering software module to the mobile device, receiving, from the mobile device and at a system associated with the information gathering entity, information indicative of events associated with use of the mobile device, and associating the received information with the demographic data.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

collecting demographic data of a user, including a phone number for a mobile device, via a website associated with an information gathering entity;

sending a message to the mobile device, the sent message, when responded to, resulting in downloading of a metering software module to the mobile device;

receiving, from the mobile device and at a system associated with the information gathering entity, information indicative of events associated with use of the mobile device; and

associating the received information with the demographic data.

2. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein collecting the demographic data of the user comprises collecting the demographic data of the user via a personal computer used to access the website, the personal computer being separate from the mobile device.

3. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein receiving the information indicative of events associated with the use of the mobile device is dependent upon a predetermined criteria being met.

4. A method as defined in claim 3 wherein the predetermined criteria comprise at least one of:

a lapsing of a period of time;

a filling of a data buffer;

a wireless network connection between the mobile device and the system being available;

or

a docket network connection between the mobile device and the system being available.

5. A method as defined in claim 1 further comprising gaining permission from the user of the mobile device to download the metering software module to the mobile device.

6. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein the events associated with the use of the mobile device correspond to viewing events associated with television programming monitored using the metering software module.

7. A method as defined in claim 6 wherein the television programming is received by the mobile device.

8. A method comprising:

collecting data, including a phone number for a mobile device, via a website associated with an information gathering entity;

sending a message to the mobile device addressed to a user, the message, when responded to, causing a downloading of a metering software module to the mobile device, the metering software module to acquire and store events the mobile device is engaged in performing; and

receiving data from the mobile device at a server associated with the information gathering entity.

9. A method as defined in claim 8 wherein collecting the demographic data of the user comprises collecting the demographic data of the user via a personal computer used to access the website, the personal computer being separate from the mobile device.

10. A method as defined in claim 8 further comprising receiving collected events associated with use of the mobile device.

11. A method as defined in claim 10 wherein receiving the collected events associated with the use of the mobile device is dependent upon a predetermined criteria being met.

12. A method as defined in claim 8 further comprising gaining permission from the user of the mobile device to download the metering software module to the mobile device.

13. A method as defined in claim 8 wherein the events correspond to viewing events associated with television programming monitored using the metering software module.

14. A method comprising:

tuning a portable device to receive a broadcast signal, the broadcast signal including video or audio data;

collecting, at the portable device, information from the broadcast signal to which the portable device is tuned, the collected information including information identifying the video or audio data included in the specific broadcast signal;

storing the collected information in a memory of the portable device;

associating an identity of a user of the portable device with the stored information; and

transmitting the stored information wirelessly to a remote server, wherein the remote server is configured to process the transmitted information and demographic information.

15. A method as defined in claim 14 wherein transmitting the stored information includes transmitting the stored information to an intermediate device, which is to transmit the stored information to the remote information collection server.

16. A method as defined in claim 15 wherein transmitting the stored information to the intermediate device includes transmitting the stored information to the intermediate device utilizing a Bluetooth protocol.

17. A method as defined in claim 15 wherein transmitting the stored information to the intermediate device includes transmitting the stored information to the intermediate device utilizing a wireless fidelity protocol.

18. A method as defined in claim 14 further comprising determining, using global position system capabilities of the portable device, a location of the portable device, wherein the collected information further includes the determined location.