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

• US 8,660,308 B2
• Filed: 04/30/2012
• Issued: 02/25/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/11/2002
• Status: Expired due to Term

• 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:
  US13/459,908
• Publication Number:
  US 20120213410A1
• Time in Patent Office: 666 Days
• Field of Search: 382/103, 382115-118, 382/154, 382/168, 382218-220, 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, comprising:

performing a first comparison of a first number of people appearing in a first image of an environment and a first amount of audience member inputs received from the environment;

calculating a count of unidentified people in the environment based on the first comparison;

performing a second comparison of a second number of people appearing in a second image and a second amount of audience member inputs received from the environment, the second image captured after the first image; and

adjusting a result of the second comparison by the count of unidentified people.

2. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising performing the first comparison in response to the first number of people differing from a third number of people identified in a third image captured before the first image.

3. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising calculating the count of unidentified people based on the first comparison in response to persistently detecting a difference between multiple prior numbers of people appearing in images and multiple prior audience member inputs, respectively.

4. A method as defined in claim 3, wherein persistently detecting the difference comprises sequentially detecting a difference between the multiple prior numbers of people appearing in images and multiple prior audience member inputs more than a threshold number of times.

5. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein adjusting the result of the second comparison comprises increasing a value associated with the second comparison by the count of unidentified people.

6. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising associating the count of unidentified people with media detected in parallel with capture of the first image.

7. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the audience member inputs are received in response to prompts generated when the first number of people differs from a third number of people identified in a third image captured before the first image.

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

perform a first comparison of a first number of people identified in a first image of an environment and an amount of audience member inputs received from the environment;

calculate a count of unidentified people in the environment based on the first comparison; and

factor the count of unidentified people into a second comparison of the first image to a second image captured after the first image.

9. A storage device or storage disc as defined in claim 8, wherein the instructions cause the machine to perform the first comparison in response to the first number of people differing from a second number of people identified in a third image captured before the first image.

10. A storage device or storage disc as defined in claim 8, wherein the instructions cause the machine to calculate the count of unidentified people based on the first comparison in response to detecting a persistent difference between image analysis results and the audience member inputs.

11. A storage device or storage disc as defined in claim 10, wherein the instructions cause the machine to detect the persistent difference by detecting a threshold number of sequential differences between the image analysis results and the audience member inputs.

12. A storage device or storage disc as defined in claim 8, wherein the instructions cause the machine to factor the count of unidentified people into the second comparison by increasing a value associated with the first image using the count of unidentified people.

13. A storage device or storage disc as defined in claim 8, wherein the instructions cause the machine to associate the count of unidentified people with media identifying data detected in connection with the first image.

14. A storage device or storage disc as defined in claim 8, wherein the audience member inputs are received in response to prompts generated when the first number of people differs from a second number of people identified in a third image captured before the first image.

15. An apparatus, comprising:

a memory storing machine readable instructions; and

a processor to execute the instructions to;

perform a first comparison of a first number of people identified in a first image of an environment and a first amount of audience member inputs received from the environment;

calculate a count of unidentified people in the environment based on the first comparison;

perform a second comparison of a second number of people appearing in a second image and a second amount of audience member inputs received from the environment, the second image captured after the first image; and

adjust a result of the second comparison by the count of unidentified people.

16. An apparatus as defined in claim 15, wherein the processor is to perform the first comparison in response to the first number of people differing from a third number of people identified in a third image captured before the first image.

17. An apparatus as defined in claim 15, wherein the processor is to calculate the count of unidentified people based on the first comparison in response to persistently detecting a difference between multiple prior numbers of people appearing in images and multiple prior audience member inputs, respectively.

18. An apparatus as defined in claim 17, wherein persistently detecting a difference comprises sequentially detecting a difference between the multiple prior numbers of people appearing in images and the multiple prior audience member inputs more than a threshold number of times.

19. An apparatus as defined in claim 15, wherein the processor is to adjust the result of the second comparison by increasing a value associated with the second comparison by the count of unidentified people.

20. An apparatus as defined in claim 15, wherein the processor is to associate the count of unidentified people with media detected in parallel with capture of the first image.