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Method and system for monitoring television viewing

  • US 5,374,951 A
  • Filed: 07/08/1993
  • Issued: 12/20/1994
  • Est. Priority Date: 06/01/1990
  • Status: Expired due to Fees
First Claim
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1. A program monitoring unit for monitoring the viewing of television programs by collecting data with respect to cooperating television viewers or panelists at a remote location for later transmission to a central computer for processing, the program monitoring unit comprising:

  • a) comparison table storing means for storing an updatable table of character strings;

    b) signal acquisition means for acquiring a television signal being viewed by the cooperating television viewer;

    c) decoding means for decoding character strings from the closed captioning signal that is embedded in the viewed television signal;

    d) matching means for matching decoded character strings with character strings found in the table of character strings;

    e) memory means for storing the decoded character strings that match character strings found in the table of character strings;

    f) modem means for periodically establishing telephone communications between the program monitoring unit and the central computer via a public switched telephone network to i) transfer the matched character strings stored in the memory means to the central computer and ii) periodically update the table of character strings stored in the comparison table storing means.

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