Prompting of audience member identification

• US 8,091,100 B2
• Filed: 06/18/2001
• Issued: 01/03/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/18/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Original Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Inventors: Donato, Paul
• Primary Examiner(s): Shang, Annan Q
• Application Number:
  US09/883,546
• Publication Number:
  US 20020198762A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,851 Days
• Field of Search: 725 9- 21, 725/46, 348/327, 348/565, 348/587, 348/592, 348/906, 709217-231, 382/103, 382115-119
• US Class Current: 725/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/45 for identifying users
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/441 Acquiring end-user identification , e.g. using personal code sent by the remote control or by inserting a card
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44218 Detecting physical presence or behaviour of the user, e.g. using sensors to detect if the user is leaving the room or changes his face expression during a TV program methods or arrangements for recognising human body or animal bodies or body parts G06V40/10; methods or arrangements for acquiring or recognising human faces, facial parts, facial sketches, facial expressions G06V40/16; methods or arrangements for recognising movements or behaviour G06V40/20; arrangements for identifying users in broadcast systems H04H60/45

Abstract

An audience measurement system determines the likelihood that an audience member is in the audience of a receiver during a particular day part. If the audience member is not likely to be in the audience of the receiver during that day part, the audience member is prompted to enter an audience member identification. On the other hand, if the audience member is likely to be in the audience of the receiver during that day part, prompting of the audience member to enter an audience member identification is suppressed.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

determining a count of audience members in an audience at a first location during a day part of a monitored day;

determining a first viewing count of a number of times that a first audience member was logged in to a measurement apparatus during the day part of one or more days prior to the monitored day;

determining a second viewing count of a number of times that a second audience member was logged in to the measurement apparatus during the day part of the one or more days prior to the monitored day;

determining a first probability that the first audience member is in the audience based on the first viewing count and the second viewing count;

comparing the first probability to a probability threshold;

when at least one of the first probability traverses the probability threshold or the count is not equal to a number of audience members that are logged in to the measurement apparatus at the first location, presenting a prompt for user identification; and

storing an identification of at least one of the audience members.

2. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising waiting for passage of a predetermined amount of time from a previous prompting decision.

3. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising determining the program being viewed at the first location.

4. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising prompting the audience member to enter the audience member identification upon detection that the receiver has been turned on.

5. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the log of audience members identifies one or more additional audience members of the audience of the program.

6. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising

determining a second probability that the second audience member is in the audience based on the first viewing count and the second viewing count.

7. A method as defined in claim 6, wherein the first audience member is in the audience of the program during a first time interval, the second audience member is in the audience of the program during a second time interval, the second time interval at least partially overlapping the first time interval.

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

storing audience identification data in tables; and

collapsing the tables if the tables contain insufficient data to make a prompting decision.

9. A method as defined in claim 8, wherein the collapsing of the tables is weighted depending upon age of the audience member identification data.

10. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein determining the probability that the audience member is in the audience of the program being viewed at the first location comprises determining a variable as a function of a number of times that the audience member has viewed programs at the first location and a number of times that the measurement apparatus was active.

11. A method as defined in claim 10, wherein the determination of the variable comprises determining the variable as a function of a number of times that the audience member has viewed programs at the first location during a predetermined day part and a number of times that a receiver was turned on during the predetermined day part.

12. A method as defined in claim 10, wherein the determination of the variable comprises determining the variable as a function of a number of times that the audience member has viewed programs at the first location during a predetermined day part over a predetermined amount of time and a number of times that a receiver was turned on during the predetermined day part over the predetermined amount of time.

13. A method as defined in claim 10, wherein the determination of the variable comprises determining the variable as a function of a number of times that the audience member has viewed programs at the first location during a predetermined amount of time and a number of times that a receiver was turned on during the predetermined amount of time.

14. A method as defined in claim 10, wherein the determination of the variable comprises determining the variable as a function of a number of times that the audience member has viewed programs at the first location by a predetermined day part and by a SID and a number of times that a receiver was turned on by the predetermined day part and by the SID.

15. A method as defined in claim 10, wherein the determination of the variable comprises determining the variable as a function of a number of times that the audience member has viewed programs at the first location by a predetermined day part over a predetermined amount of time and by a SID and a number of times that the receiver was turned on during the predetermined day part over the predetermined amount of time and by the SID.

16. A method as defined in claim 10, wherein the determination of the variable comprises determining the variable as a function of a number of times that the audience member has viewed programs at the first location during a predetermined amount of time and by a SID and a number of times that the receiver was turned on during the predetermined amount of time and by the SID.

17. A method as defined in claim 10, wherein the determination of the variable comprises determining the variable as a function of a number of times that the audience member has viewed programs at the first location by a SID and a number of times that the receiver was turned on by the SID.

18. A method as defined in claim 10, further comprising storing audience identification data in tables and collapsing the tables if the tables contain insufficient data to make a prompting decision.

19. A method as defined in claim 18, wherein the collapsing of the tables is weighted depending upon age of the audience member identification data.

20. The method of claim 10, further comprising prompting the audience member to enter the audience member identification when the variable is not equal to a current persons count and is greater than the threshold.

21. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the first probability is based on a number of times that the audience member has viewed programs at the first location and a number of times that the audience measurement system was turned on.

22. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising applying a heuristic to determine the probability that the first audience member is in the audience of the program being viewed at the first location.

23. A method as defined in claim 22, further comprising applying the heuristic based upon a number of times that the first audience member viewed programs at the first location during a corresponding day part.

24. A method as defined in claim 22, wherein the application of a heuristic to determine whether the first audience member is in an audience of a receiver comprises determining a variable as a function of a number of times that the first audience member has viewed programs at the first location and a number of times that the measurement apparatus at the first location was turned on.

25. A method as defined in claim 24, wherein the determination of a variable comprises determining the variable as a function of a number of times that the first audience member was has viewed programs at the first location during a predetermined day part and a number of times that the measurement apparatus at the first location was turned on during the predetermined day part.

26. A method as defined in claim 24, wherein the determination of a variable comprises determining the variable as a function of a number of times that the first audience member has viewed programs at the first location during a predetermined day part over a predetermined amount of time and a number of times that the measurement apparatus at the first location was turned on during the predetermined day part over the predetermined amount of time.

27. A method as defined in claim 24, wherein the determination of a variable comprises determining the variable as a function of a number of times that the first audience member has viewed programs at the first location during a predetermined amount of time and a number of times that the measurement apparatus at the first location was turned on during the predetermined amount of time.

28. As defined in method as defined in claim 24, wherein the determination of a variable comprises determining the variable as a function of a number of times that the first audience member has viewed programs at the first location by a predetermined day part and by a SID and a number of times that the measurement apparatus at the first location was turned on by the predetermined day part and by the SID.

29. A method as defined in claim 24, wherein the determination of a variable comprises determining the variable as a function of a number of times that the first audience member has viewed programs at the first location by a predetermined day part over a predetermined amount of time and by a SID and a number of times that the measurement apparatus at the first location was turned on during the predetermined day part over the predetermined amount of time and by the SID.

30. A method as defined in claim 24, wherein the determination of a variable comprises determining the variable as a function of a number of times that the first audience member has viewed programs at the first location during a predetermined amount of time and by a SID and a number of times that the measurement apparatus at the first location was turned on during the predetermined amount of time and by the SID.

31. A method as defined in claim 24, wherein the determination of a variable comprises determining the variable as a function of a number of times that the first audience member has viewed programs at the first location by a SID and a number of times that the measurement apparatus at the first location was turned on by the SID.

32. A method as defined in claim 22, further comprising storing audience identification data in tables;

collapsing the tables if the tables contain insufficient data to make a prompting decision.

33. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the probability is based upon tuning history and tuning style.

34. A method as defined in claim 33, wherein the tuning style comprises at least one of tuning velocity, tuning acceleration, tuning velocity and tuning acceleration, or program clustering.

35. A method as defined in claim 33, further comprising:

storing audience identification data in tables; and

collapsing the tables if the tables contain insufficient data to make a prompting decision.

36. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising

determining the first probability based upon a tuning style;

determining a variable as a function of a number of times that the audience member has viewed programs at the first location and a number of times that an audience measurement system at the first location was turned on; and

displaying a prompt to the audience member to enter the audience member identification if the variable is not greater than a second threshold and if the probability is not greater than the threshold.

37. A method as defined in claim 36, wherein the tuning style comprises at least one of tuning velocity, tuning acceleration, tuning velocity and tuning acceleration, or program clustering.

38. A method as defined in claim 36, wherein the determination of a variable comprises determining the variable as a function of a number of times that the first audience member has viewed programs at the first location during a predetermined day part and a number of times that the measurement apparatus at the first location was turned on during the predetermined day part.

39. A method as defined in claim 36, wherein the determination of a variable comprises determining the variable as a function of a number of times that the first audience member has viewed programs at the first location during a predetermined day part over a predetermined amount of time and a number of times that the measurement apparatus at the first location was turned on during the predetermined day part over the predetermined amount of time.

40. A method as defined in claim 36, wherein the determination of a variable comprises determining the variable as a function of a number of times that the first audience member has viewed programs at the first location during a predetermined amount of time and a number of times that the measurement apparatus at the first location was turned on during the predetermined amount of time.

41. A method as defined in claim 36, wherein the determination of a variable comprises determining the variable as a function of a number of times that the first audience member has viewed programs at the first location by a predetermined day part and by a SID and a number of times that the measurement apparatus at the first location was turned on by the predetermined day part and by the SID.

42. A method as defined in claim 36, wherein the determination of a variable comprises determining the variable as a function of a number of times that the first audience member has viewed programs at the first location by a predetermined day part over a predetermined amount of time and by a SID and a number of times that the measurement apparatus at the first location was turned on during the predetermined day part over the predetermined amount of time and by the SID.

43. A method as defined in claim 36, wherein the determination of a variable comprises determining the variable as a function of a number of times that the first audience member was has viewed programs at the first location during a predetermined amount of time and by a SID and a number of times that the measurement apparatus at the first location was turned on during the predetermined amount of time and by the SID.

44. A method as defined in claim 36, wherein the determination of a variable comprises determining the variable as a function of a number of times that the first audience member has viewed programs at the first location by a SID and a number of times that the measurement apparatus at the first location was turned on by the SID.

45. The method of claim 36 wherein the method is executed only after the passage of a predetermined amount of time from a previous prompting decision.

46. The method of claim 36 further comprising:

initially displaying a prompt to the first audience member to enter the audience member identification upon detection that the receiver has been turned on; and

executing the method only after the passage of a predetermined amount of time from the initial prompting.

47. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein determining the probability that the person is in the audience comprises:

recording data indicative of historical tuning behavior for the person;

recording data indicative of current tuning behavior; and

comparing the data indicative of current tuning behavior to the data indicative of historical tuning behavior.

48. A method as defined in claim 47, wherein the data indicative of historical tuning behavior comprises at least one of tuning velocity, tuning acceleration, channel clusters, pauses in tuning, subsets of programs tuned, duration of programs viewed, receivers viewed, or times of day.

49. A method as defined in claim 47, wherein recording the data indicative of historical tuning behavior comprises periodically prompting for an audience member identification to associate the data indicative of historical tuning behavior with the individual.

50. A method as defined in claim 49, wherein periods of time between periodic prompts increase over time.

51. A method as defined in claim 49, wherein periods of time between periodic prompts depends upon distinctiveness of the recorded data.

52. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein determining the first probability that the first audience member is in the audience comprises:

recording a first set of data associated with the first audience member;

recording a second set of data associated with the second audience member; and

comparing a recent set of audience inputs to the first and second sets of data.

53. A method as defined in claim 52, wherein comparing the recent set of audience inputs to the first and second sets of data uses at least one statistical difference between the first and second sets of data.

54. A method of distinguishing audience members as defined in claim 52, wherein comparing the recent set of audience inputs to the first and second sets of data comprises comparing at least one of average rate of channel changing, instantaneous rate of channel changing, acceleration of channel changing, subsets of channel viewed, duration of channel viewing, time of day, or direction of channel changing for the recent set of audience inputs to at least one of the first or second set of data.

55. A method as defined in claim 52, wherein recording the set of data associated with the first audience member comprises periodically prompting for an audience member identification to associate recorded data with the first audience member.

56. A method as defined in claim 55, wherein periods of time between periodic prompts increases over time.

57. A method as defined in claim 55, wherein periods of time between periodic prompts depends upon statistical distinctiveness between the first and the second sets of data.

58. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein determining the probability that the first audience member is in the audience comprises:

detecting a series of tuning events;

recording a series of time intervals corresponding to time elapsed between sequential pairs of the tuning events; and

comparing the tuning events to the series of time intervals.

63. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising adding the first viewing count and the second viewing count to determine a total viewing count, wherein the first probability is based on the total viewing count.

64. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein storing an identification of at least one of the audience members comprises storing an identification of the first audience member.

65. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising comparing the count of audience members to a number of audience members that are logged in to a measurement apparatus at the first location.

66. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the first viewing count is based on the number of times that the first audience member was logged in to a second measurement apparatus at a second location.

67. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the first viewing count is based on the number of times that the first audience member was logged in to the first measurement apparatus during exposure to a first program source.

59. A method as defined in 58, wherein identifying the first audience member comprises:

comparing the series of time intervals to a historical record of time intervals between tuning events associated with a plurality of audience members; and

identifying which of the audience members caused the tuning events based on the comparison.

60. A method as defined in 58 further comprising at least one of:

recording a series of channels or program identifiers associated with respective ones of the series of tuning events;

or

recording a series of time references associated with respective ones of the series of tuning events.

61. A method as defined in 60, wherein identifying the first audience member comprises:

comparing the series of time intervals to a historical record of time intervals between tuning events associated with a plurality of audience members;

comparing the series of channels or program identifiers to a historical record of tuned channels or programs; and

identifying which of the audience members caused the tuning events based on the comparisons.

62. A method as defined in 60, wherein identifying the first audience member comprises:

comparing the series of time intervals to a historical record of time intervals between tuning events associated with a plurality of audience members;

comparing the series of time references to a historical record of viewing times; and

identifying which of the audience members caused the tuning events based on the comparisons.

68. An article of manufacture storing machine readable instructions which, when executed, cause a machine to:

determine a count of audience members in an audience at a first location during a day part of a monitored day;

determine a first viewing count of a number of times that a first audience member was logged in to the measurement apparatus during the day part of one or more days prior to the monitored day;

determine a second viewing count of a number of times that a second audience member was logged in to the measurement apparatus during the day part of the one or more days prior to the monitored day;

determine a first probability that the first audience member is in the audience based on the first viewing count and the second viewing count;

compare the first probability to a probability threshold;

when at least one of the first probability traverses the probability threshold or the count is not equal to a number of audience members that are logged in to the measurement apparatus at the first location, present a prompt for user identification; and

store an identification of at least one of the audience members.

69. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 68 wherein the machine readable instructions cause the machine to determine the first probability based on a number of times that the audience member has historically viewed programs at the first location.

70. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 69, wherein the machine readable instructions cause the machine to determine the first probability based on a number of times that the measurement apparatus at the first location has been turned on.

71. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 69, wherein the number of times that the audience member was historically in the audience of at first location and the number of times that the measurement apparatus at the first location has been turned on are based on the day part.

72. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 69, wherein the number of times that the audience member was historically in the audience of at the first location and the number of times that the measurement apparatus at the first location has been turned on are based on a source identification (SID) code.

73. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 69, wherein the probability is based upon at least one of tuning style or tuning patterns.

74. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 68, wherein the machine readable instructions cause the machine to determine the first probability using a heuristic.

75. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 74, wherein the heuristic utilizes at least one of:

a number of times that the audience member has viewed programs at the first location;

a count of audience members;

a number of logged in audience members;

a predetermined day part;

a predetermined program;

a predetermined source identification (SID) code;

a number of times that an audience measurement system at the first location is turned on;

or whether the audience member is logged in.

76. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 68, wherein the machine readable instructions cause the machine to determine the first probability based upon tuning style.

77. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 76, wherein the machine readable instructions cause the machine to determine the first probability based on tuning history.

78. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 76, wherein the machine readable instructions cause the machine to determine the first probability by computing a likelihood based upon past audience composition and tuning habits.

79. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 68 wherein the machine readable instructions cause the machine to suppress displaying a prompt to the audience if the first audience member has already entered the audience member identification.

80. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 68, wherein the machine readable instructions cause the machine to wait a pre-determined amount of time between prompting decisions.

81. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 80, wherein the machine readable instructions cause the machine to initially display a prompt to the audience to enter the audience member identification upon a detection that the measurement apparatus at the first location has been turned on.

82. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 68, wherein the machine readable instructions cause the machine to display a prompt or add the audience member to the log of audience members at intermittent prompting occasions.

83. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 82 wherein the intermittent prompting occasions are nominally separated from one another by a period T, and wherein the period T varies depending upon prior responses to the prompting.

84. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 68, wherein the machine readable instructions cause the machine to:

store audience identification data in tables; and

collapse the tables if the tables contain insufficient data to make a prompting decision.

85. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 84 wherein the collapsing of the tables is weighted depending upon age of the audience member identification data.

86. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 68, wherein the machine readable instructions cause the machine to determine the probability that the person is in the audience by:

recording data indicative of historical tuning behavior for the person;

recording data indicative of current tuning behavior; and

comparing the data indicative of current tuning behavior to the data indicative of historical tuning behavior.

87. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 86, wherein the data indicative of historical tuning behavior comprises at least one of tuning velocity, tuning acceleration, channel clusters, pauses in tuning, subsets of programs tuned, duration of programs viewed, receivers viewed, or times of day.

88. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 86, wherein the machine readable instructions cause the machine to periodically prompt for an audience member identification to associate the data indicative of historical tuning behavior with the individual.

89. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 88, wherein the machine readable instructions cause the machine to sequentially increase periods of time between periodic prompts.

90. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 88, wherein the machine readable instructions cause the machine to adjust periods of time between periodic prompts based on distinctiveness of the recorded data.

91. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 68, wherein the machine readable instructions cause the machine to determine the first probability that the first audience member is in the audience by:

recording a first set of data associated with the first audience member;

recording a second set of data associated with a second audience member; and

comparing a recent set of audience inputs to the first and second sets of data.

92. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 91, wherein the machine readable instructions cause the machine to compare the recent set of audience inputs to the first and second sets of data by using at least one statistical difference between the first and second sets of data.

93. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 91, wherein the machine readable instructions cause the machine to compare the recent set of audience inputs to the first and second sets of data by comparing at least one of average rate of channel changing, instantaneous rate of channel changing, acceleration of channel changing, subsets of channel viewed, duration of channel viewing, time of day, or direction of channel changing for the recent set of audience inputs to at least one of the first or second set of data.

94. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 91, wherein the machine readable instructions cause the machine to periodically prompt for an audience member identification to associate recorded data with the first audience member.

95. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 94, wherein the machine readable instructions cause the machine to sequentially increase periods of time between periodic prompts.

96. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 94, wherein the machine readable instructions cause the machine to adjust periods of time between periodic prompts based on statistical distinctiveness between the first and the second sets of data.

97. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 68, wherein the machine readable instructions cause the machine to determine the probability that the first audience member is in the audience by:

detecting a series of tuning events;

recording a series of time intervals corresponding to time elapsed between sequential pairs of the tuning events;

comparing the tuning events to the series of time intervals.

102. An article of manufacture as described in claim 68, wherein the machine readable instructions cause the machine to add the first viewing count and the second viewing count to determine a total viewing count, wherein the first probability is based on the total viewing count.

103. An article of manufacture as described in claim 68, wherein storing an identification of at least one of the audience members comprises storing an identification of the first audience member.

104. An article of manufacture as described in claim 68, wherein the machine readable instructions cause the machine to compare the count of audience members to a number of audience members that are logged in to a measurement apparatus at the first location.

105. An article of manufacture as described in claim 68, wherein the first viewing count is based on the number of times that the first audience member was logged in to a second measurement apparatus at a second location.

106. An article of manufacture as described in claim 68, wherein the first viewing count is based on the number of times that the first audience member was logged in to the first measurement apparatus during exposure to a first program source.

98. An article of manufacture as defined in 97, wherein the machine readable instructions cause the machine to identify the first audience member by:

comparing the series of time intervals to a historical record of time intervals between tuning events associated with a plurality of audience members; and

identifying which of the audience members caused the tuning events based on the comparison.

99. An article of manufacture as defined in 97 wherein the machine readable instructions cause the machine to perform at least one of:

recording a series of channels or program identifiers associated with respective ones of the series of tuning events;

or

recording a series of time references associated with respective ones of the series of tuning events.

100. An article of manufacture as defined in 99, wherein the machine readable instructions cause the machine to identify the first audience member by:

comparing the series of time intervals to a historical record of time intervals between tuning events associated with a plurality of audience members;

comparing the series of channels or program identifiers to a historical record of tuned channels or programs; and

identifying which of the audience members caused the tuning events based on the comparisons.

101. An article of manufacture as defined in 99, the machine readable instructions cause the machine to identify the first audience member by:

comparing the series of time intervals to a historical record of time intervals between tuning events associated with a plurality of audience members;

comparing the series of time references to a historical record of viewing times; and

identifying which of the audience members caused the tuning events based on the comparisons.

107. A measurement apparatus, comprising:

a memory; and

a processor coupled to the memory and programmed to;

determine a count of audience members in an audience at a first location during a day part of a monitored day;

determine a first viewing count of a number of times that a first audience member was logged in to the measurement apparatus during the day part of one or more days prior to the monitored day;

determine a second viewing count of a number of times that a second audience member was logged in to the measurement apparatus during the day part of the one or more days prior to the monitored day;

determine a first probability that the first audience member is in the audience based on the first viewing count and the second viewing count;

compare the first probability to a probability threshold;

when at least one of the first probability traverses the probability threshold or the count is not equal to a number of audience members that are logged in to the measurement apparatus at the first location, present a prompt for user identification; and

store an identification of at least one of the audience members.

108. An apparatus as defined in claim 107, wherein the first probability is computed based upon a number of times that the first audience member has been in an audience at the first location during a corresponding day part.

109. An apparatus as defined in claim 107, wherein the processor is programmed to determine the first probability based on a number of times that the first audience member was historically in an audience at the first location.

110. An apparatus as defined in claim 109, wherein the processor is programmed to determine the first probability based on a number of times that the measurement apparatus at the first location has been turned on.

111. An apparatus as defined in claim 109, wherein the processor is programmed to determine the first probability based upon at least one of tuning style or tuning patterns.

112. An apparatus as defined in claim 107, wherein the processor is programmed to determine the first probability using a heuristic.

113. An apparatus as defined in claim 112, wherein the heuristic utilizes at least one of:

a number of times that the first audience member has been in an audience at the first location;

a count of audience members;

a number of logged in audience members;

a predetermined day part;

a predetermined program;

a predetermined source identification (SID) code;

a number of times that an audience measurement system at the first location is turned on;

or whether the first audience member is logged in.

114. An apparatus as defined in claim 107, wherein the processor is programmed to determine the first probability based upon tuning style.

115. An apparatus as defined in claim 107, wherein the processor is programmed to determine the first probability based upon audience composition and tuning habits.

116. An apparatus as defined in claim 107, wherein the processor is programmed to suppress presenting a prompt to the audience if the audience has already entered the user identification.

117. An apparatus as defined in claim 107, wherein the processor is programmed to wait a pre-determined amount of time between prompting decisions.

118. An apparatus as defined in claim 107, wherein the processor is programmed to prompt or suppress the prompting at intermittent prompting occasions.

119. An apparatus as defined in claim 118, wherein the intermittent prompting occasions are nominally separated from one another by a period T, and wherein the period T varies depending upon prior responses to the prompting.

120. An apparatus as defined in claim 107, wherein the processor is programmed to:

store audience identification data in tables; and

collapse the tables if the tables contain insufficient data to make a prompting decision.

121. An apparatus as defined in claim 107, wherein the processor is programmed to determine the probability that the person is in the audience by:

recording data indicative of historical tuning behavior for the person;

recording data indicative of current tuning behavior; and

comparing the data indicative of current tuning behavior to the data indicative of historical tuning behavior.

122. An apparatus as defined in claim 121, wherein the data indicative of historical tuning behavior comprises at least one of tuning velocity, tuning acceleration, channel clusters, pauses in tuning, subsets of programs tuned, duration of programs viewed, receivers viewed, or times of day.

123. An apparatus as defined in claim 121, wherein the processor is programmed to periodically prompt for an audience member identification to associate the data indicative of historical tuning behavior with the individual.

124. An apparatus as defined in claim 123, wherein the processor is programmed to sequentially increase periods of time between periodic prompts.

125. An apparatus as defined in claim 123, wherein the processor is programmed to adjust periods of time between periodic prompts based on distinctiveness of the recorded data.

126. An apparatus as defined in claim 107, wherein the processor is programmed to determine the first probability that the first audience member is in the audience by:

recording a first set of data associated with the first audience member;

recording a second set of data associated with second audience member; and

comparing a recent set of audience inputs to the first and second sets of data.

127. An apparatus as defined in claim 126, wherein the processor is programmed to compare the recent set of audience inputs to the first and second sets of data by using at least one statistical difference between the first and second sets of data.

128. An apparatus as defined in claim 126, wherein the processor is programmed to compare the recent set of audience inputs to the first and second sets of data by comparing at least one of average rate of channel changing, instantaneous rate of channel changing, acceleration of channel changing, subsets of channel viewed, duration of channel viewing, time of day, or direction of channel changing for the recent set of audience inputs to at least one of the first and second set of data.

129. An apparatus as defined in claim 126, wherein the processor is programmed to periodically prompt for an audience member identification to associate recorded data with the first audience member.

130. An apparatus as defined in claim 129, wherein the processor is programmed to sequentially increase periods of time between periodic prompts.

131. An apparatus as defined in claim 129, wherein the processor is programmed to adjust periods of time between periodic prompts based on statistical distinctiveness between the first and the second sets of data.

132. An apparatus as defined in claim 107, wherein the processor is programmed to determine the probability that the first audience member is in the audience by:

detecting a series of tuning events;

recording a series of time intervals corresponding to time elapsed between sequential pairs of the tuning events; and

comparing the tuning events the series of time intervals.

137. An apparatus as described in claim 107, wherein the processor is further programmed to add the first viewing count and the second viewing count to determine a total viewing count, wherein the first probability is based on the total viewing count.

138. An apparatus as described in claim 107, wherein storing an identification of at least one of the audience members comprises storing an identification of the first audience member.

139. An apparatus as described in claim 107, wherein the processor is further programmed to compare the count of audience members to a number of audience members that are logged in to a measurement apparatus at the first location.

140. An apparatus as described in claim 107, wherein the first viewing count is based on the number of times that the first audience member was logged in to a second measurement apparatus at a second location.

141. An apparatus as described in claim 107, wherein the first viewing count is based on the number of times that the first audience member was logged in to the first measurement apparatus during exposure to a first program source.

133. An apparatus as defined in 132, wherein the processor is programmed to identify the first audience member by:

comparing the series of time intervals to a historical record of time intervals between tuning events associated with a plurality of audience members; and

identifying which of the audience members caused the tuning events based on the comparison.

134. An apparatus as defined in 132 wherein the processor is programmed to perform at least one of:

recording a series of channels or program identifiers associated with respective ones of the series of tuning events;

or

recording a series of time references associated with respective ones of the series of tuning events.

135. An apparatus as defined in 134, wherein the processor is programmed to identify the first audience member by:

comparing the series of time intervals to a historical record of time intervals between tuning events associated with a plurality of audience members;

comparing the series of channels or program identifiers to a historical record of tuned channels or programs; and

identifying which of the audience members caused the tuning events based on the comparisons.

136. An apparatus as defined in 134, the processor is programmed to identify the first audience member by:

comparing the series of time intervals to a historical record of time intervals between tuning events associated with a plurality of audience members;

comparing the series of time references to a historical record of viewing times; and

identifying which of the audience members caused the tuning events based on the comparisons.

142. A method comprising:

storing, via a logic circuit, a computer readable memory a first audience identification information for one or more audience members of a program being viewed at a first location during a first day part;

determining, via the logic circuit, if a predetermined interval has passed after which to make a prompting decision;

determining, via the logic circuit, a count of audience members present in the audience and a number of audience members associated with the stored audience identification information in response to determining the predetermined interval has passed;

determining an expected number of audience members based on historical tuning information for known audience members during corresponding day parts in response to determining that the count of audience members is equal to the number of audience members associated with the stored audience information;

determining whether the expected number of audience members is greater than a first threshold in response to determining the expected number;

determining a first probability that a first audience member is in the audience based on historical tuning information of the first audience member for the corresponding day parts and determining a second probability that a second audience member is in the audience based on historical tuning information of the second audience member for the corresponding day parts in response to the expected number being greater than the first threshold;

determining that the first probability is greater than the second probability;

determining whether the first probability is greater than a second threshold in response to determining that the first probability is greater than the second probability;

determining whether the first audience member is one of the audience members associated with the stored audience identification information based on the first probability being greater than the threshold;

suppressing an identification prompt based on whether the first audience member is one of the audience members associated with the stored audience identification information; and

prompting the audience for a second audience identification information in response to failing to suppress the identification prompt.