DETERMINING MEDIA DEVICE ACTIVATION BASED ON FREQUENCY RESPONSE ANALYSIS

• US 20160140969A1
• Filed: 11/14/2014
• Published: 05/19/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/14/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Original Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Inventors: Srinivasan, Venugopal, Lee, Morris
• Granted Patent: US 9,747,906 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/008 Multichannel audio signal coding or decoding using interchannel correlation to reduce redundancy, e.g. joint-stereo, intensity-coding or matrixing
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/018 Audio watermarking, i.e. embedding inaudible data in the audio signal
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/24 Variable rate codecs, e.g. for generating different qualities using a scalable representation such as hierarchical encoding or layered encoding
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 21/038 using band spreading techniques
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/31 Arrangements for monitoring the use made of the broadcast services
• 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 21/4394 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 21/44222 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 21/44231 Monitoring of peripheral device or external card, e.g. to detect processing problems in a handheld device or the failure of an external recording device configuring of peripheral devices in general G06F9/4411; reporting information sensed by appliance or service execution status of appliance services in a home automation network H04L12/2823; monitoring the status of connected device in data switched networks H04L43/0817

Abstract

Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture (e.g., physical storage media) to determine media device activation based on frequency response analysis are disclosed. Example methods disclosed herein include determining a reference frequency response based on first frequency values of an audio signal used to perform watermark detection for a first time interval during which a media device has been determined to be active. Such example methods also include determining a second frequency response based on second frequency values of the audio signal used to perform watermark detection for a second time interval different from the first time interval. Such example methods further include comparing the second frequency response with the reference frequency response to determine whether the media device was active during the second time interval.

Claims

1. A method to monitor a media device, the method comprising:

determining, with a processor, a reference frequency response based on first frequency values of an audio signal used to perform watermark detection for a first time interval during which the media device has been determined to be active;

determining, with the processor, a second frequency response based on second frequency values of the audio signal used to perform watermark detection for a second time interval different from the first time interval; and

comparing, with the processor, the second frequency response with the reference frequency response to determine whether the media device was active during the second time interval.

2. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein comparing the second frequency response with the reference frequency response comprises:

determining a value of a dot product of the second frequency response and the reference frequency response; and

comparing the value of the dot product to a threshold to determine whether the media device was active during the second time interval.

3. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising, in response to determining that a valid watermark was detected when performing watermark detection for the first time interval using the first frequency values, determining that the media device was active during the first time interval.

4. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising:

determining a third frequency response based on third frequency values of the audio signal used to perform watermark detection for a third time interval after the first time interval; and

in response to determining that a valid watermark was detected when performing watermark detection for the third time interval, replacing the reference frequency response with the third frequency response.

5. A method as defined in claim 4, further comprising:

comparing the third frequency response with the reference frequency response; and

in response to determining that the third frequency response does not match the reference frequency response, indicating that at least one of;

(i) the media device moved relative to a position of the media device during the first time interval, or (ii) an environment in which the media device is in operation has changed relative to an arrangement of the environment during the first time interval.

6. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein comparing the second frequency response with the reference frequency response is performed in response to determining that no valid watermark was detected when performing watermark detection for the second time interval.

7. A method as defined in claim 6, further comprising, when no valid watermark was detected when performing watermark detection for the second time interval, conditioning whether to determine a signature from a portion of the audio signal corresponding to the second time interval based on whether the comparing of the second frequency response with the reference frequency response indicates that the media device was active during the second time interval.

9. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising conserving processing resources by disabling further generation of monitoring data using a portion of the audio signal corresponding to the second time interval in response to determining that, based on the comparing of the second frequency response with the reference frequency response, the media device was inactive during the second time interval.

8. (canceled)

10. A tangible machine readable storage medium comprising machine readable instructions which, when executed, cause a machine to at least:

determine a reference frequency response based on first frequency values of an audio signal used to perform watermark detection for a first time interval during which a media device has been determined to be active;

determine a second frequency response based on second frequency values of the audio signal used to perform watermark detection for a second time interval different from the first time interval; and

compare the second frequency response with the reference frequency response to determine whether the media device was active during the second time interval.

11. A storage medium as defined in claim 10, wherein to compare the second frequency response with the reference frequency response, the machine readable instructions, when executed, further cause the machine to:

determine a value of a dot product of the second frequency response and the reference frequency response; and

compare the value of the dot product to a threshold to determine whether the media device was active during the second time interval.

13. A storage medium as defined in claim 10, wherein the machine readable instructions, when executed, further cause the machine to:

determine a third frequency response based on third frequency values of the audio signal used to perform watermark detection for a third time interval after the first time interval; and

in response to determining that a valid watermark was detected when performing watermark detection for the third time interval, replace the reference frequency response with the third frequency response.

14. A storage medium as defined in claim 13, wherein the machine readable instructions, when executed, further cause the machine to:

compare the third frequency response with the reference frequency response; and

indicate that at least one of;

(i) the media device moved relative to a position of the media device during the first time interval, or (ii) an environment in which the media device is in operation has changed relative to an arrangement of the environment during the first time interval, in response to determining that the third frequency response does not match the reference frequency response.

15. A storage medium as defined in claim 10, wherein the machine readable instructions, when executed, cause the machine to compare the second frequency response with the reference frequency response in response to determining that no valid watermark was detected when performing watermark detection for the second time interval.

16. A storage medium as defined in claim 15, wherein the machine readable instructions, when executed, further cause the machine to condition whether to determine a signature from a portion of the audio signal corresponding to the second time interval based on whether (i) the comparing of the second frequency response with the reference frequency response indicates that the media device was active during the second time interval, and (ii) no valid watermark was detected when performing watermark detection for the second time interval.

12. (canceled)

17. (canceled)

18. (canceled)

19. An apparatus to monitor a media device, the apparatus comprising:

a frequency response determiner to;

determine a reference frequency response based on first frequency values of an audio signal used to perform watermark detection for a first time interval during which the media device has been determined to be active; and

determine a second frequency response based on second frequency values of the audio signal used to perform watermark detection for a second time interval different from the first time interval; and

a comparator to compare the second frequency response with the reference frequency response to determine whether the media device was active during the second time interval.

20. An apparatus as defined in claim 19, wherein the comparator is to compare the second frequency response with the reference frequency response by:

determining a value of a dot product of the second frequency response and the reference frequency response; and

comparing the value of the dot product to a threshold to determine whether the media device was active during the second time interval.

22. An apparatus as defined in claim 19, wherein the frequency response determiner is determining a third frequency response based on third frequency values of the audio signal used to perform watermark detection for a third time interval after the first time interval, and further comprising a reference response identifier to replacing the reference frequency response with the third frequency response in response to determining that a valid watermark was detected when performing watermark detection for the third time interval.

23. An apparatus as defined in claim 22, wherein the comparator is to compare the third frequency response with the reference frequency response, and further comprising a status evaluator to indicate that at least one of:

(i) the media device moved relative to a position of the media device during the first time interval, or (ii) an environment in which the media device is in operation has changed relative to an arrangement of the environment during the first time interval, in response to determining that the third frequency response does not match the reference frequency response.

24. An apparatus as defined in claim 19, wherein the comparator is to compare the second frequency response with the reference frequency response in response to determining that no valid watermark was detected when performing watermark detection for the second time interval.

25. An apparatus as defined in claim 24, further comprising a status evaluator to condition whether to determine a signature from a portion of the audio signal corresponding to the second time interval based on whether (i) the comparing of the second frequency response with the reference frequency response indicates that the media device was active during the second time interval, and (ii) no valid watermark was detected when performing watermark detection for the second time interval.

21. (canceled)

26. (canceled)

27. (canceled)