Methods and apparatus for detecting a composition of an audience of an information presenting device

• US 8,194,923 B2
• Filed: 07/31/2009
• Issued: 06/05/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/11/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Original Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Inventors: Ramaswamy, Arun, Nelson, Daniel J., Srinivasan, Venugopal
• Primary Examiner(s): Alavi, Amir
• Application Number:
  US12/533,629
• Publication Number:
  US 20090290756A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,040 Days
• Field of Search: 382/103, 382115-118, 382/154, 382/168, 382/227, 382/236, 382/274, 382/284, 725/1, 725/10, 725/12, 725/14, 725/15, 725/19, 725/24, 725/34, 705/7.32, 367/87, 367/104, 348/E7.07, 348/E7.083, 348/E17.001
• US Class Current: 382/103
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/10 Human or animal bodies, e.g. vehicle occupants or pedestrians; Body parts, e.g. hands
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/33 Arrangements for monitoring the users' behaviour or opinions
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/43 for identifying broadcast channels
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/45 for identifying users
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/258 Client or end-user data management, e.g. managing client capabilities, user preferences or demographics, processing of multiple end-users preferences to derive collaborative data arrangements for services using the result on the distributing side of broadcast systems H04H60/66; profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42201 biosensors, e.g. heat sensor for presence detection, EEG sensors or any limb activity sensors worn by the user input arrangements for interaction with the human body based on nervous system activity detection G06F3/015
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4223 Cameras H04N23/00 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/433 Content storage operation, e.g. storage operation in response to a pause request, caching operations
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4335 Housekeeping operations, e.g. prioritizing content for deletion because of storage space restrictions storage management, e.g. defragmentation G06F3/0604; unloading stored programs G06F9/445; storage management in file systems G06F16/10; buffering arrangements in a network node or in an end terminal in packet networks H04L49/90
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44008 involving operations for analysing video streams, e.g. detecting features or characteristics in the video stream arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of video in broadcast systems H04H60/59
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44222 Analytics of user selections, e.g. selection of programs or purchase activity monitoring of user selections in data processing systems G06F11/34; arrangements for monitoring the user's behaviour or opinions in broadcast systems H04H60/33
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17309 Transmission or handling of upstream communications

Abstract

Methods and apparatus for detecting a composition of an audience of an information presenting device are disclosed. A disclosed example method includes: capturing at least one image of the audience; determining a number of people within the at least one image; prompting the audience to identify its members if a change in the number of people is detected based on the number of people determined to be within the at least one image; and if a number of members identified by the audience is different from the determined number of people after a predetermined number of prompts of the audience, adjusting a value to avoid excessive prompting of the audience.

Claims

1. A method of detecting a composition of an audience of an information presenting device comprising:

capturing at least one image of the audience;

determining, using a processor, a number of people within the at least one image;

prompting the audience to identify its members if a change in the number of people is detected based on the number of people determined to be within the at least one image; and

if a number of members identified by the audience is different from the determined number of people after a predetermined number of prompts of the audience, adjusting, with the processor, a value to avoid excessive prompting of the audience.

2. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein adjusting the value comprises increasing a previous audience count by a difference between the number of members identified by the audience and the number of people determined from the at least one image.

3. A method as defined in claim 2, further comprising recording the difference between the number of members identified by the audience and the number of people determined from the at least one image as a number of unidentified audience members.

4. A method as defined in claim 1 further comprising periodically exporting recorded data to a device to identify audiences and programs being presented to the audiences.

5. An apparatus to detect a composition of an audience of an information presenting device comprising:

a camera to capture at least one image of the audience;

a processor;

a memory storing computer readable instructions which, when executed, cause the processor to;

determine a number of people within the at least one image;

develop a prompt signal requesting the audience to identify its members if a change in the number of people is visually detected; and

an output device responsive to the prompt signal to output an indication requesting the audience to identify its members; and

if a number of members identified by the audience is different from the determined number of people after a number of prompts of the audience, the computer readable instructions cause the processor to adjust a value to avoid excessive prompting of the audience.

6. An apparatus as defined in claim 5 wherein the processor is to the value by increasing a previous audience count by a difference between the number of members identified by the audience and the number of people determined from the at least one image.

7. An apparatus as defined in claim 6 wherein the computer readable instructions cause the processor to record the difference between the number of members identified by the audience and the number of people determined from the at least one image as a number of unidentified audience members.

8. A tangible computer readable medium excluding propagating signals and storing machine readable instructions which, when executed, cause at least one machine to at least:

capture at least one image of an audience presented with a program;

determine a number of people within the at least one image;

output a prompt signal requesting the audience to identify its members if a change in the number of people is detected from the at least one image; and

if a number of members identified by the audience is different from the determined number of people after a number of prompts of the audience, the computer readable instructions cause the at least one machine to adjust a value to avoid excessive prompting of the audience.

9. A computer readable medium as defined in claim 8 wherein the instructions cause the at least one machine to adjust the value by increasing a previous audience count by a difference between the number of members identified by the audience and the number of people determined from the at least one image.

10. A computer readable medium as defined in claim 9 wherein the machine readable instructions cause the at least one machine to record the difference between the number of members identified by the audience and the number of people determined from the at least one image as a number of unidentified audience members.

11. An apparatus to detect a composition of an audience of an information presenting device comprising:

an image sensor to capture at least one image of the audience;

a people counter to determine a number of people in the at least one image;

a change detector to compare the number of people in the at least one image to a value representative of a previous number of people in the audience;

a prompter to request the audience to identify its members if the change detector identifies a difference between the number of people in the at least one image and the value representative of the previous number of people in the audience; and

an input device to receive data from the audience.

12. An apparatus as defined in claim 11 further comprising a compliance detector to determine if a member of the audience is not being identified in response to the prompt.

13. An apparatus as defined in claim 11 wherein the people counter comprises:

a motion detector to compare at least two images to detect motion;

an image amalgamator to develop an amalgamated image from the at least two images;

a shape outliner to draw at least one shape within the amalgamated image; and

a blob discriminator to determine if the at least one shape represents a person.

14. An apparatus as defined in claim 13 further comprising a non-human filter to eliminate a non-human shape from the at least one shape.

15. An apparatus as defined in claim 14 wherein the non-human filter eliminates the non-human shape based on at least one of a location of the non-human shape and a size of the non-human shape.

16. An apparatus as defined in claim 13 wherein the blob discriminator comprises:

a center locator to identify a center of the at least one shape;

a center comparator to add a symbol representative of the center of the at least one shape to a histogram; and

a threshold counter to count symbols in the histogram exceeding a predetermined threshold.

17. An apparatus as defined in claim 16 wherein if the center of the at least one shape substantially corresponds to an existing center in the histogram, the center comparator adds the symbol representative of the center of the at least one shape to a symbol representing the existing center in the histogram.

18. An apparatus as defined in claim 16 further comprising an energy detector to compare a value indicative of motion occurring between the two images to an energy threshold, and to cause the threshold counter to count the symbols in the histogram exceeding the predetermined threshold if the value exceeds the energy threshold.

19. An apparatus as defined in claim 16 further comprising a false motion detector to eliminate a non-growing symbol from the histogram.

20. An apparatus as defined in claim 11 wherein, if a number of members identified by the audience is different from the number of people determined by the change detector after a predetermined number of prompts of the audience, a compliance detector adjusts the value representative of the previous number of people in the audience to avoid excessive prompting of the audience.

21. An apparatus as defined in claim 20 wherein the compliance detector adjusts the value by increasing the value representative of the previous number of people in the audience by a difference between the number of members identified by the audience and the number of people determined from the image by the people counter.

22. An apparatus as defined in claim 21 wherein the compliance detector records the difference between the number of members identified by the audience and the number of people determined from the at least one image as a number of unidentified audience member.

23. An apparatus as defined in claim 11 further comprising a content collector to identify the program being presented to the audience.

24. An apparatus as defined in claim 23 wherein the content collector further comprises a program detector to identify a source of the program being presented to the audience.

25. An apparatus as defined in claim 24 further comprising a time stamper to identify a presentation time, and a memory to record the source and the presentation time.

26. An apparatus as defined in claim 24 wherein the program detector identifies the source of the program by identifying a tuned channel.

27. An apparatus as defined in claim 11 further comprising an output device to export recorded data to a device to identify audiences and programs being presented to the audiences.