Audience monitoring system
First Claim
1. Apparatus for monitoring the population in a room containing a device, said apparatus comprising:
- means for detecting the entry and exit of people from said room; and
means for monitoring the status of said device, said monitoring means including means responsive to said detecting means for prompting people in said room to input additional information to said monitoring means when said detecting means detects entry or exit from said room.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Each doorway or passageway between rooms in which a device may be located is fitted with another device which detects motion and the direction of the motion through the passage. Each room is equipped with a signal emitter that is controlled by the motion detector at the room'"'"'s passage. The signal emitted by the signal emitter is received by a monitor which monitors the status of the device which happens to be located in that room. The emitted signal informs the monitor when there has been motion into the room (audience increase) or when there has been motion out of the room (audience decrease). Motion between rooms will result in a decrease signal being sent by the signal emitter in one room and an increase signal being sent by the signal emitter in the other room. If no device and monitor are located in a room, the increase or decrease signal is ignored by the audience monitoring system. If a monitor is located in the room, however, the increase or decrease signal received by it from the signal emitter will cause the monitor to issue an immediate prompt, to remind the persons in the room to push the keys of an inputting device to report the identity of the individuals who just entered or departed. The monitor will record this information, the time of day, and information received from the inputting device, such as channel selection and the like in the case of a television.
155 Citations
56 Claims
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1. Apparatus for monitoring the population in a room containing a device, said apparatus comprising:
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means for detecting the entry and exit of people from said room; and means for monitoring the status of said device, said monitoring means including means responsive to said detecting means for prompting people in said room to input additional information to said monitoring means when said detecting means detects entry or exit from said room. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. Apparatus for monitoring the population in a room containing a video display means, said apparatus comprising:
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means for detecting the entry and exit of people from said room; video monitoring means for monitoring the status of said video display means, said video monitoring means including means, responsive to said detecting means, for prompting people in said room to input additional information to said video monitoring means when said detecting means detects entry or exit from said room. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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27. A system for collecting data from television viewers, including a plurality of remote units at a plurality of viewer locations, each of said remote units monitoring the population in a room containing a television receiver and comprising:
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means for detecting the entry and exit of people from said room, said detecting means including light emitters and photocells arranged on opposite sides of each passage to said room such that said photocells receive uninterrupted beams of light from said light emitters, the interruption of said beams of light by a person entering said room causing a gain signal to be generated, and the interruption of said beams of light by a person exiting said room causing a loss signal to be generated; and video monitoring means for monitoring the status of said television receiver, said video monitoring means including means responsive to said gain signal or said loss signal for generating a prompt requesting a user to input data including the identification of people in said room to said video monitoring means, wherein said video monitoring means further comprises; processing means, responsive to said gain signal or said loss signal, for sending an enable signal to said means for generating a prompt; and memory means, controlled by said processing means, for storing the time of day, said gain signal or said loss signal, and data representing the status of said television receiver, said memory means providing said gain signal or said loss signal to said means for generating a prompt when said processing means sends said enable signal. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38)
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39. A method of monitoring the population in a room containing a device, comprising the steps of:
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monitoring the status of said device; detecting the entry and exit of people from said room; and prompting people in said room to provide additional information when said detecting step detects entry or exit from said room. - View Dependent Claims (40, 41, 42, 43)
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44. A method of monitoring the population in a room containing a video display means, comprising the steps of:
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monitoring the status of said video display means; detecting the entry and exit of people from said room; and prompting people in said room to provide additional information when said detecting step detects entry or exit from said room. - View Dependent Claims (45, 46, 47)
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48. A method of collecting data from selected television viewers, said data including the identification of people in each room containing a television receiver, comprising the steps of:
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detecting the entry and exit of people from each of said rooms with light emitters and photocells arranged on opposite sides of each passage to each of said rooms such that said photocells receive uninterrupted beams of light from said light emitters; generating a gain signal when at least one of said beams of light is interrupted by a person entering each of said rooms; generating a loss signal when at least one of said beams of light is interrupted by a person exiting each of said rooms; monitoring the status of said television receiver and receiving said gain signal and said loss signal; storing the time of day, said gain signal or said loss signal, and data representing the status of said television receiver; and generating a prompt requesting a user to input data including the identification of people in each of said rooms to said video monitoring means in response to said gain signal or said loss signal. - View Dependent Claims (49, 50, 51, 52)
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53. A method of monitoring the population in each room containing a television receiver in a house, said house equipped with a distributed monitoring system for monitoring the status of at least one of said television receivers in said house and for monitoring the motion of people to or from each room containing a television receiver, comprising the steps of:
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detecting the entry and exit of people from each room containing a television receiver, with light emitters and photocells arranged on opposite sides of each passage to each of said rooms such that said photocells receive uninterrupted beams of light from said light emitters; generating a gain signal when at least one of said beams of light is interrupted by a person entering said room; generating a loss signal when at least one of said beams of light is interrupted by a person exiting said room; transmitting said gain signal or said loss signal at periodic intervals; storing said gain signal or said loss signal transmitted in said transmitting step; determining if an alarm means is activated; initiating an alarm if said alarm means is activated and said gain signal or said loss signal has been received; determining if a gain signal and a loss signal or a loss signal and a gain signal were received from one of said rooms in rapid succession when said alarm means was not activated; for each television receiver in said house, determining if said television receiver is activated; determining if said detecting steps detects an adult or a child; and generating a prompt on said television receiver when the entry or exit of any adult from the room containing said television is detected, said television receiver is determined to be activated and said signals are not determined as being generated in rapid succession, said prompt requesting that data representing the population of people in the room be inputted.
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54. A method of monitoring the population in each of a plurality of rooms containing a video display means, comprising the steps of:
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(a) detecting the entry and exit of people from each of said rooms; (b) monitoring the status of at least one of said video display means; (c) monitoring said detecting step (a) and said status monitoring step (b) from a central location in said house; and (d) generating, in response to said monitoring step (c) determining that at least one of entry and exit has occurred in one of said rooms with said video display means activated, a prompt for said video display means in said one of said rooms. - View Dependent Claims (55, 56)
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Specification