Methods and systems to meter media content presented on a wireless communication device

• US 8,514,907 B2
• Filed: 10/23/2007
• Issued: 08/20/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/27/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nielsen Company (US), LLC
• Original Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Inventors: Wright, David H., Nasser, Kamal, Herrmann, Jeff L., Ramaswamy, Arun, Mello, Brian Scott
• Primary Examiner(s): Dsouza, Adolf
• Application Number:
  US11/877,413
• Publication Number:
  US 20080126420A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,128 Days
• Field of Search: 375/132, 707/10, 706/21, 709/230, 386/96
• US Class Current: 375/132
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 2201/90 characterised by the use of signatures
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/32 Arrangements for monitoring conditions of receiving stations, e.g. malfunction or breakdown of receiving stations
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/37 for identifying segments of broadcast information, e.g. scenes or extracting programme ID
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/40 for identifying broadcast time
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/43 for identifying broadcast channels
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/44 for identifying broadcast stations
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/50 of broadcast or relay stations
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/51 of receiving stations
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/58 of audio determination or detection of speech characteristics in general G10L25/00; speech recognition in general G10L15/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/59 of video recognising characters or patterns in general G06F18/00, G06V20/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/64 for providing detail information
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/66 for using the result on distributors' side
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/24 Monitoring of processes or resources, e.g. monitoring of server load, available bandwidth, upstream requests monitoring of server performance or load G06F11/34; arrangements for observation, testing or troubleshooting for broadcast or for distribution combined with broadcast H04H20/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2407 Monitoring of transmitted content, e.g. distribution time, number of downloads arrangements for monitoring programmes for broadcast or for distribution combined with broadcast H04H20/14
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25841 involving the geographical location of the client retrieval from the Internet by querying based on geographical locations G06F16/9537; arrangements for identifying locations of receiving stations in broadcast systems H04H60/51; location of the user terminal in data switching networks H04L67/52; services making use of the location of users or terminals in wireless networks H04W4/02; locating users or terminals in wireless networks H04W64/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25883 being end-user demographical data, e.g. age, family status or address arrangements for identifying locations of users in broadcast systems H04H60/52
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41407 embedded in a portable device, e.g. video client on a mobile phone, PDA, laptop constructional details of equipment or arrangements specially adapted for portable computer application G06F1/1626; arrangements specially adapted for mobile receivers in broadcast systems H04H20/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42684 Client identification by a unique number or address, e.g. serial number, MAC address, socket ID network arrangements, protocols or services for addressing or naming H04L61/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44209 Monitoring of downstream path of the transmission network originating from a server, e.g. bandwidth variations of a wireless network arrangements for maintenance or administration in data switching networks involving bandwidth and capacity management H04L41/0896
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44224 : Monitoring of user activity on external systems, e.g. Internet browsing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4424 : Monitoring of the internal components or processes of the client device, e.g. CPU or memory load, processing speed, timer, counter or percentage of the hard disk space used error monitoring in general G06F11/30; arrangements for monitoring conditions of receiving stations in broadcast systems H04H60/32; diagnosis, testing or measuring for television receivers H04N17/04
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/845 : Structuring of content, e.g. decomposing content into time segments
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 : Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/06 : Selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS]; Services to user groups; One-way selective calling services

Abstract

Example methods, apparatus, systems, and articles of manufacture meter media content presented on a wireless communication device are disclosed. A disclosed example method receives media content via a wireless communication device. The media content is to be presented via the wireless communication device. First information is generated indicative of a media presentation mode of a media presentation application executed by the wireless communication device to present the media content. Second information is generated indicative of the media content presented via the wireless communication device. The first information is stored in association with the second information in the wireless communication device.

Claims

1. A method to generate media metering information associated with a wireless communication device, the method comprising:

generating first information indicative of a media presentation mode of a media presentation application executed by a wireless communication device during a presentation of the media content received and presented via the wireless communication device, the media content comprising scheduled programming that is broadcasted or multicasted simultaneously to a plurality of other wireless communication devices during a pre-scheduled time;

generating second information indicative of the media content presented via the wireless communication device;

storing the first information in association with the second information in the wireless communication device; and

storing third information in association with the first and second information, wherein the third information is indicative of at least one of a location of a cell tower used to transmit the media content to the wireless communication device, an identifier of the cell tower, or an identifier of a wireless network access point used to transmit the media content.

2. A method as defined in claim 1 further comprising extracting identification information associated with the media content from a data packet associated with receiving the media content.

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

extracting at least one of an audio code or a video code from the media content, and wherein the extracted code identifies at least one of the media content, a media content provider, or a media programming provider channel number used to communicate the media content; and

generating the second information based on the extracted code.

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

generating a signature based on the media content, wherein the signature comprises at least one of an audio signature or a video signature; and

generating the second information based on the signature.

5. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising storing location information in association with the second information indicative of a location of the wireless communication device.

6. A tangible computer readable storage device or disk comprising instructions that, when executed, cause a machine to at least:

store, in a first field, first identification information indicative of a wireless communication device;

store, in a second field, second identification information indicative of media content presented via the wireless communication device, the media content comprising scheduled programming that is broadcasted or multicasted simultaneously to a plurality of other wireless communication devices during a pre-scheduled time;

store, in a third field, a media presentation mode of a media presentation application used to present the media content via the wireless communication device, the storing of the media presentation mode being in response to the wireless communication device having executed the media presentation application in the media presentation mode during a presentation of the media content; and

store, in a fourth field, at least one of a location of a cell tower used to transmit the media content to the wireless communication device, an identifier of the cell tower, or an identifier of a wireless network access point used to transmit the media content.

7. A tangible computer readable storage device or disk as defined in claim 6, wherein the instructions further cause the machine to store, in a fifth field, time information indicative of a duration for which the media content identified in the second field was presented via the wireless communication device.

8. A tangible computer readable storage device or disk as defined in claim 6, wherein the instructions further cause the machine to store, in a fifth field, media presentation software identification information.

9. A tangible computer readable storage device or disk as defined in claim 6, wherein the instructions further cause the machine to store, in a fifth field, quality of service information associated with a communication link used to transmit the media content.

10. A tangible computer readable storage device or disk as defined in claim 6, wherein the instructions further cause the machine to store, in a fifth field, media content quality information associated with the media content.

11. A tangible computer readable storage device or disk as defined in claim 6, wherein the instructions further cause the machine to store, in a fifth field, application usage information indicative of applications that were used via the wireless communication device.

12. A tangible computer readable storage device or disk as defined in claim 6, wherein the instructions further cause the machine to store, in a fifth field, carrying information indicative of a time or a duration associated with a user carrying the wireless communication device.

13. A tangible computer readable storage device or disk as defined in claim 6, wherein the instructions further cause the machine to store, in a fifth field, roaming information indicative of times when the wireless communication device was in a roaming mode.

14. A method to process metering information, comprising:

receiving via a first wireless communication device a plurality of media content transmitted by a transmitting entity;

generating via the first wireless communication device reference metering information indicative of the plurality of media content;

receiving via a second wireless communication device at least some of the media content;

generating via the second wireless communication device panel metering information indicative of the at least some of the media content; and

determining the validity of the panel metering information based on the reference metering information.

15. A method as defined in claim 14, wherein determining the validity of the panel metering information comprises comparing first data in the panel metering information to second data in the reference metering information.

16. A method as defined in claim 15, wherein the first data is associated with a first timestamp and further comprising selecting the second data based on a second timestamp of the second data corresponding to the first timestamp.

17. A method as defined in claim 14, further comprising generating via the second wireless communication device the panel metering information by switching between a plurality of channels and obtaining at least some of the media content provided via each channel.

18. A method to generate media metering information associated with a wireless communication device, comprising:

generating first information indicative of media content presented via a wireless communication device;

collecting second information indicative of a technical issue corresponding to the operability of the wireless communication device that affects user-consumption of the media content during a presentation of the media content;

storing the first information in association with the second information; and

storing timestamp information in association with the first information and the second information, wherein the timestamp information includes a first timestamp stored in association with the first information and a second timestamp stored in association with the second information, and wherein a substantial match between the first and second timestamps indicates that the technical issue occurred during a presentation of the media content.

19. A method as defined in claim 18, further comprising using the second information to determine the amount of media exposure credit or media consumption credit to attribute to a media content presentation indicated by the first information.

20. A method to generate media monitoring information, comprising:

generating a first data record corresponding to a first media presentation session;

storing a first end timestamp in the first data record indicative of a first time at which the first media presentation session ended;

generating a second data record corresponding to a second media presentation session;

storing a second end timestamp in the second data record indicative of a second time at which the second media presentation session ended; and

storing the first end timestamp in the second data record.

21. A method as defined in claim 20, further comprising:

retrieving the first end timestamp from the second data record;

retrieving the first end timestamp from the first data record; and

comparing the first end timestamp from the second data record with the first end timestamp from the first data record to determine whether another data record is missing between the first and second data records.

22. A method as defined in claim 20, wherein the first and second media presentation sessions are performed by a wireless communication device.