Audience measurement system incorporating a mobile handset

• US 6,467,089 B1
• Filed: 12/23/1997
• Issued: 10/15/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Nielsen Media Research, Inc. (Nielsen Holdings plc)
• Original Assignee: Nielsen Media Research, Inc. (Nielsen Holdings plc)
• Inventors: Aust, Edgar W., Lu, Daozheng
• Primary Examiner(s): Faile, Andrew
• Assistant Examiner(s): Srivastava, Vivek
• Application Number:
  US08/997,316
• Time in Patent Office: 1,757 Days
• Field of Search: H04/N.900, H04/N.716, 348/1, 348/2, 348/6, 348/10, 348/11, 348/12, 348/13, 348/14, 455/2, 455/2.01, 725/9-21, 725/23, 725/44-47
• US Class Current: 725/13
• 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: H04M 1/725 Cordless telephones user interfaces specially adapted therefor H04M1/724

Abstract

An audience measurement system for a receiver comprises monitoring equipment, such as a decoder, ON/OFF detector and transmitter, coupled to the receiver. The decoder reads program codes embedded in a program received by the receiver. The system also comprises a base unit and a mobile unit, such as a telephone handset. The handset receives the program codes transmitted from the decoder and prompts (via a visual display or audio tone) an audience member to enter personal data (i.e. who the audience member is) via a keypad or voice input. The program data (from the decoder) and personal data (input by the audience member) is provided to the base unit, where it is time stamped and stored. The base unit includes telephone circuitry to transmit the stored data to a data collection central facility via a public switched telephone network. If no program codes are found or if the monitoring equipment is eliminated, the mobile unit prompts the audience member to enter program data that may be selected from a previously downloaded program schedule.

Claims

1. An audience measurement system for a receiver, comprising:

monitoring equipment associated with the receiver and connected to a transmitter;

a mobile unit having a transceiver which receives program data from the transmitter and an audience member interface which prompts an audience member to enter personal data and receives data from the audience member; and

a base unit having a transceiver which receives the program and personal data from the mobile unit and a memory which stores the program and personal data, wherein the base unit further receives information from the data collection central facility.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the monitoring equipment comprises a decoder for retrieving and decoding a program code embedded in a program received by the receiver.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the transmitter transmits the program code from the decoder to the mobile unit.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the monitoring equipment comprises an ON/OFF detector for determining whether the receiver is ON.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the transmitter transmits a signal from the ON/OFF detector to the mobile unit when the receiver is ON.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the transmitter is a radio frequency transmitter.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the audience member interface of the mobile unit comprises a display for displaying prompting messages to the audience member.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the audience member interface of the mobile unit comprises a keypad for receiving key entries from the audience member.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprising voice recognition circuitry.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the voice recognition circuitry is installed in the base unit.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the voice recognition circuitry is installed in the mobile unit.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the audience member interface of the mobile unit comprises a microphone for receiving voice signals from the audience member.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the audience member interface of the mobile unit comprises a speaker for transmitting audio prompting messages to the audience member.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the audience member interface prompts the audience member to enter program data if no program data is received from the monitoring apparatus.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the mobile unit comprises a telephone handset.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the mobile unit further comprises a controller and a memory.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein the base unit further comprises telephone circuitry for transmitting the program and personal data to a data collection central facility via a public switched telephone network.

18. The system of claim 1, further comprising a controller arranged to retrieve a program schedule from a program schedule database.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the program schedule is stored in the memory of the base unit.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the base unit transmits the program schedule to the mobile unit.

21. The system of claim 1, wherein the mobile unit transceiver communicates with the base unit transceiver via radio frequency.

22. The system of claim 1, wherein the base unit further comprises a controller for time stamping the stored program and personal data.

23. The system of claim 1, wherein the receiver comprises a television receiver.

24. The system of claim 1, wherein the receiver comprises a radio receiver.

25. The system of claim 1, wherein the receiver comprises an interactive services device.

26. The system of claim 1, wherein the receiver comprises a computer.

27. A method comprising the following steps:

a) determining whether a receiver is on;

b) if the receiver is on, determining whether a program identification datum is available for extraction from the program;

c) if a program identification datum is available for extraction from the program, extracting the program identification datum and prompting the user to enter an identification of the user; and

,

d) if a program identification datum is not available for extraction from the program, displaying currently available programs to which a receiver may be tuned, prompting a user to select, from the currently available programs, a program to which the receiver is tuned, and prompting the user to enter an identification of the user.

28. The method of claim 27 wherein the program identification datum is a program identifying code.

29. The method of claim 27 wherein the program identification datum is a signature characteristic of a program.

30. The method of claim 27 further comprising the step of storing the program identification datum and the user identification.

31. The method of claim 27 further comprising the step of transmitting the program identification datum and the user identification to an apparatus.

32. The method of claim 31 wherein the apparatus is a local base unit.

33. The method of claim 31 wherein the apparatus is a remote facility.

34. The method of claim 27 further comprising the step of retrieving the currently available programs as a program guide from a remote facility.

35. A method comprising the following steps:

a) displaying a first time period;

b) determining whether data to be entered corresponds to the first time period;

c) if the data to be entered corresponds to the first time period, displaying programs tunable by a receiver during the first time period and prompting a user to enter a program identification corresponding to at least one of the displayed programs tunable by the receiver during the first time period; and

,

d) if the data to be entered does not correspond to the first time period, displaying a second time period, displaying programs tunable by a receiver during the second time period, and prompting a user to enter a program identification corresponding to at least one of the displayed programs tunable by the receiver during the second time period.

36. The method of claim 35 wherein step c) comprises the step of prompting the user to enter an identification of the user.

37. The method of claim 36 further comprising the step of storing the program identification and the user identification.

38. The method of claim 36 further comprising the step of transmitting the program identification and the user identification to an apparatus.

39. The method of claim 35 wherein step d) comprises the step of prompting the user to enter an identification of the user.

40. The method of claim 39 further comprising the step of storing the program identification and the user identification.

41. The method of claim 39 further comprising the step of transmitting the program identification and the user identification to an apparatus.

42. The method of claim 35 further comprising the step of storing the program identification.

43. The method of claim 35 further comprising the step of transmitting the program identification to an apparatus.

44. The method of claim 43 wherein the apparatus is a local base unit.

45. The method of claim 43 wherein the apparatus is a remote facility.

46. The method of claim 35 further comprising the step of retrieving the programs as a program guide from a remote facility.

47. An audience measurement system for a receiver comprising:

monitoring equipment associated with the receiver and connected to a transmitter;

a mobile unit having a transceiver which receives program data from the transmitter and an audience member interface which prompts an audience member to enter personal data and receives data from the audience member, wherein the audience member interface prompts the audience member to enter program data if no program data is received from the monitoring apparatus; and

,

a base unit having a transceiver which receives the program and personal data from the mobile unit and a memory which stores the program and personal data.

48. The system of claim 47 wherein the monitoring equipment comprises a decoder for retrieving and decoding a program code embedded in a program received by the receiver, and wherein the transmitter transmits the program code from the decoder to the mobile unit.

49. The system of claim 47 wherein the monitoring equipment comprises an ON/OFF detector for determining whether the receiver is ON, and wherein the transmitter transmits a signal from the ON/OFF detector to the mobile unit when the receiver is ON.

50. The system of claim 47 wherein the audience member interface of the mobile unit comprises a display for displaying the prompts to the audience member.

51. The system of claim 47 wherein the mobile unit comprises a telephone handset.

52. The system of claim 47 wherein the base unit further comprises a transmitter arranged to transmit the program and personal data to a remote data collection central facility.

53. The system of claim 47 wherein the base unit receives information from a remote data collection central facility.

54. The system of claim 47 wherein the mobile unit has a memory that stores a program schedule retrieved from a program schedule database.

55. An audience measurement system for a receiver comprising:

monitoring equipment associated with the receiver and connected to a transmitter;

a mobile unit having a transceiver which receives program data from the transmitter and an audience member interface which prompts an audience member to enter personal data and receives data from the audience member; and

,

a base unit having a transceiver which receives the program and personal data from the mobile unit and a memory which stores the program and personal data, wherein the base unit further receives information from a remote data collection central facility.

56. The system of claim 55 wherein the monitoring equipment comprises a decoder for retrieving and decoding a program code embedded in a program received by the receiver, and wherein the transmitter transmits the program code from the decoder to the mobile unit.

57. The system of claim 55 wherein the monitoring equipment comprises an ON/OFF detector for determining whether the receiver is ON, and wherein the transmitter transmits a signal from the ON/OFF detector to the mobile unit when the receiver is ON.

58. The system of claim 55 wherein the audience member interface of the mobile unit comprises a display for displaying the prompts to the audience member.

59. The system of claim 55 wherein the mobile unit comprises a telephone handset.

60. The system of claim 55 wherein the base unit further comprises a transceiver arranged to transmit the program and personal data to a remote data collection central facility and to receive the information from the remote data collection central facility.

61. The system of claim 55 wherein the mobile unit has a memory that stores a program schedule retrieved from a program schedule database.

62. A method comprising:

remotely receiving at a mobile unit program data from a program receiver that provides program material to an audience member;

prompting via the mobile unit the audience member to enter personal data into the mobile unit;

prompting via the-mobile unit the audience member to enter program data if no program data is received from the program receiver; and

,

transferring the program and personal data to a remote data collection facility.

63. The method of claim 62 comprising retrieving a program code from a program at the program receiver, and transmitting the program code to the mobile unit.

64. The method of claim 62 comprising detecting whether the receiver is ON, and transmitting a signal from the program receiver to the mobile unit indicating that the program receiver is ON.

65. The method of claim 62 comprising visually displaying at the mobile unit the prompts to the audience member.

66. The method of claim 62 comprising receiving information from the remote data collection central facility.

67. The method of claim 62 comprising storing at the mobile unit a program schedule retrieved from a program schedule database.