Audience rating measuring system for television and video tape recorder

• US 4,574,304 A
• Filed: 04/20/1984
• Issued: 03/04/1986
• Est. Priority Date: 04/22/1983
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Video Research Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Video Research Ltd.
• Inventors: Watanabe, Fumio, Itoh, Yoshikazu
• Primary Examiner(s): NOT, DEFINED
• Application Number:
  US06/602,404
• Time in Patent Office: 683 Days
• Field of Search: 179/2 AS, 358/84, 455/2
• US Class Current: 725/18
• 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 60/43 for identifying broadcast channels
• 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 5/765 Interface circuits between an apparatus for recording and another apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/16 Analogue secrecy systems; Analogue subscription systems

Abstract

The invention relates to an audience rating measuring system for a television and a video tape recorder and provides an audience rating measuring system which can give accurate audience data under various conditions, such as when a television and a video tape recorder are used in combination, that can not be measured by the conventional audience rating measuring systems in general use. The audience rating measuring system of the invention comprises means for video tape recorder channel discrimination, video tape recorder operation mode discrimination, and television channel discrimination.

Claims

1. An audience rating measuring system for a television receiver adapted for receiving a plurality of channels and a video tape recorder having a plurality of operation modes connected thereto and adapted for selectively receiving said channels, said system comprising:

video tape recorder channel discrimination means for detecting the channels received by the video tape recorder;

video tape recorder operation mode discrimination means for detecting the operation modes of the video tape recorder; and

television channel discrimination means for detecting the channels received by the television receiver;

said audience measuring system detecting the modes of the video tape recorder and the television receiver when used in combination.

2. An audience rating measuring system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the video tape recorder generates a first sound intermediate frequency signal, said video tape recorder channel discrimination means comprising a tuner for generating a controllably variable second sound intermediate frequency signal and a sensor disposed inside said video tape recorder for detecting the first sound intermediate frequency signal generated by said video tape recorder, means for controllably vary said tuner to varying said second sound intermediate frequency signal until it coincides with the first sound intermediate frequency signal of said video tape recorder and means for indicating the tuning position of said tuner at the time of coincidence.

3. An audience rating measuring system as claimed in claim 1 wherein said operation mode discrimination means comprises a first power ON/OFF detection means for detecting the power-on of said video tape recorder and the increase or decrease in an inflow current, second power ON/OFF detection means for detecting the power-on of said television receiver, erase signal detection means for detecting erase signals of said video tape recorder;

and logic means for operating on the detection outputs of said first and second power ON/OFF detection means, said erase signal detection means and said channel discrimination means for determining the operation state of said video tape recorder in four operation modes of OFF, monitor, playback and recording.

4. An audience rating measuring system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the television receiver generates a first sound intermediate frequency signal and said television channel discrimination means comprises a tuner which generates a second sound intermediate frequency signal which sequentially changes in frequency and a sensor disposed inside said television receiver for sensing said first sound intermediate frequency signal;

means for comparing for coincidence of the first sound intermediate frequency signal of said television receiver with the second sound intermediate frequency signal;

means when both of said signals coincide for determining the channel of said television receiver;

means for generating a first audio signal obtained by demodulating the first sound intermediate frequency signal of said television receiver;

means for generating a second audio signal obtained by demodulating the second sound intermediate frequency signal of said tuner; and

an audio signal comparison means operative when no coincidence can be obtained between said first and second sound intermediate frequency signals comparison so that the channel of said television receiver is determined from the tuning position of said tuner by detecting coincidence of said first and second audio signals.

5. An audience rating measuring system as claimed in claim 4 wherein said audio signal comparison means comprises a first delay voltage comparator means for receiving a first audio signal and detecting the rise and fall of the signal waveform, a second delay voltage comparator means for receiving a second audio signal and detecting the rise and fall of the signal waveform, and means comparing the output signals of said first and second time delay voltage comparator means for determining the coincidence of said first and second audio signals.

6. Apparatus for determining the operating state of a video tape recorder having erase signals and a reception channel and further having OFF, playback and recording modes of operation comprising a power ON/OFF detection means for detecting the power-on of the video tape recorder, erase signal detection means for detecting the erase signals of said video tape recorder and channel discrimination means for detecting the reception channel of said video tape recorder;

and logic means operating on the detection outputs of said first power ON/OFF detection means, said erase signal detection means and said channel discrimination means for determining in which of the OFF, playback and recording modes the video tape recorder is operating.