Methods and apparatus to measure exposure to logos in vehicle races

• US 9,100,720 B2
• Filed: 03/14/2013
• Issued: 08/04/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Original Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Inventors: Soundararajan, Padmanabhan, Topchy, Alexander Pavlovich
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Nirav G
• Application Number:
  US13/829,313
• Publication Number:
  US 20140270354A1
• Time in Patent Office: 873 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/69 Control of means for changing angle of the field of view, e.g. optical zoom objectives or electronic zooming

Abstract

Methods and apparatus to measure logo exposure in vehicle races are disclosed. An example apparatus includes a vehicle database containing first time-location data identifying a first set of physical locations of a first vehicle at corresponding points in time, the first vehicle to display a first logo; a camera database containing time-camera view data identifying a set of views of a camera at corresponding points in time; and credit logic to determine whether to credit the first logo with an exposure to the camera based on the first time-location data and the time-camera view data.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a vehicle database including first time-location data identifying a first set of physical locations of a first vehicle at corresponding points in time, the first vehicle to display a first logo, the vehicle database further including second time-location data identifying a second set of physical locations of a second vehicle at the corresponding points in time;

a camera database including time-camera view data identifying a set of views of a camera at the corresponding points in time; and

credit logic to determine whether to credit the first logo with a first exposure to the camera based on the first time-location data and the time-camera view data, the credit logic further including an occlusion detector to determine whether the first vehicle was occluded from the camera by the second vehicle based on the first time-location data, the second time-location data and the time-camera view data, and the credit logic is to determine whether to credit the first logo with the exposure based on the determination of the occlusion detector.

2. An apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein the credit logic includes a camera view finder to determine a first physical area viewable by the camera based on the time-camera view data.

3. An apparatus as defined in claim 2, wherein the credit logic includes a vehicle position analyzer to determine whether the first vehicle was within the first physical area by accessing the first time-location data, the credit logic further including a logo counter to determine whether to credit the first logo with the first exposure based on an output of the vehicle position analyzer.

4. An apparatus as defined in claim 3, wherein the credit logic includes a duration detector to determine whether the first vehicle was within the first physical area for more than a threshold amount of time, the credit logic to determine whether to credit the first logo with the first exposure based on an output of the duration detector.

5. An apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein the vehicle database includes a direction of travel of the first vehicle at the corresponding points in time.

6. An apparatus as defined in claim 5, further including a vehicle logo database including logo location data that indicates a portion of the first vehicle on which the first logo is located.

7. An apparatus as defined in claim 6, wherein the credit logic includes a logo counter to determine whether the first logo was visible by the camera by determining whether the portion of the first vehicle on which the first logo is located is within a line of sight of the camera.

8. An apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein the camera database contains second time-camera view data identifying a second set of views of a second camera at the corresponding points in time, the apparatus further including a data filter to select filtered time-camera view data identifying a filtered set of views from the time-camera view data and the second time-camera view data, the filtered set of views including the filtered time-camera view data selected by a camera selector at the corresponding points in time.

9. A method comprising:

accessing first time-location data identifying a first set of physical locations of a first vehicle at corresponding points in time, the first vehicle displaying a first logo;

accessing time-camera view data identifying a set of views of a camera at the corresponding points in time;

determining a first physical area viewable by the camera based on the time-camera view data; and

determining, with a processor, whether to credit the first logo with a first exposure to the camera based on the first time-location data and the time-camera view data by;

accessing the first time-location data; and

determining whether the first vehicle was within the first physical area for more than a threshold amount of time.

10. A method as defined in claim 9, wherein determining whether to credit the first logo with the exposure further comprises

accessing second time-location data identifying a second set of physical locations of a second vehicle at the corresponding points in time;

and

determining whether the first vehicle was occluded from the camera by the second vehicle based on (1) the first time-location data, (2) the second time-location data and (3) the time-camera view data.

11. A method as defined in claim 10, further including selecting filtered time-camera view data identifying a second set of views from the time-camera view data identifying a filtered set of views of a second camera at the corresponding points in time, the filtered set of views including the filtered time-camera view data selected by a camera selector at the corresponding points in time.

12. A method as defined in claim 11, further including determining whether to credit the first logo with the first exposure based on the first time-location data and the filtered time-camera view data.

13. A method as defined in claim 9, further including accessing vehicle data including a direction of travel of the first vehicle at the corresponding points in time.

14. A method as defined in claim 13, further including accessing a vehicle logo database including logo location data that indicates a portion of the first vehicle on which the first logo was located.

15. A method as defined in claim 14, further including determining whether the first logo was visible by the camera by determining whether the portion on the first vehicle on which the first logo is located was within a line of sight of the camera.

16. A method as defined in claim 9, wherein the time-camera view data corresponds to images of the first vehicle engaged in an automobile race.

17. A method as defined in claim 9, wherein the time-camera view data identifies a geographic location and an orientation of the camera at the corresponding points in time.

18. A method as defined in claim 17, wherein the time-camera view data further identifies a zoom setting of the camera at the corresponding points in time.

19. A method as defined in claim 9, further including detecting an amount of time that the first vehicle was within the first physical area and recording the amount of time in a results database.

20. A method as defined in claim 19, wherein the set of views identified by the time-camera view data includes a media presentation, and further including:

determining a second physical area viewable by the camera based on the time-camera view data;

determining whether the first vehicle was within the second physical area by accessing the first time-location data;

determining whether to credit the first logo with a second exposure based on an output of a vehicle position analyzer; and

storing a total number of exposures for the logo over a full length of the media presentation.

21. A method as defined in claim 20, further including determining whether the first vehicle was within the second physical area for more than the threshold amount of time;

determining whether to credit the first logo with the second exposure based on an output of a duration detector; and

storing a total duration of the first exposure and the second exposure.

22. A method as defined in claim 20, further including determining a subset of the set of views including the media presentation, wherein the views in the subset were seen by a panelist.

23. A method as defined in claim 22, further including determining the total number of exposures in the subset.

24. A method as defined in claim 22, further including determining a total duration of the exposures in the subset.

25. A tangible machine readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause a machine to at least:

access first time-location data identifying a first set of physical locations of a first vehicle at corresponding points in time, the first vehicle displaying a first logo;

access first time-camera view data identifying a first set of views of a first camera at the corresponding points in time;

select filtered time-camera view data identifying a second set of views from the time-camera view data identifying a filtered set of views of a second camera at the corresponding points in time, the filtered set of views including the filtered time-camera view data selected by a camera selector at the corresponding points in time; and

determine whether to credit the first logo with a first exposure to the camera based on the first time-location data and the filtered time-camera view data.

26. A machine readable storage medium as defined in claim 25, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the machine to determine a first physical area viewable by the camera based on the time-camera view data.

27. A machine readable storage medium as defined in claim 26, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the machine to determine whether to credit the first logo with the exposure by determining whether the first vehicle was within the first physical area by accessing the first time-location data.

28. A machine readable storage medium as defined in claim 27, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the machine to determine whether to credit the first logo with the exposure by determining whether the first vehicle was within the first physical area for more than a threshold amount of time.

29. A machine readable storage medium as defined in claim 25, wherein the instructions cause the machine to determine whether to credit the first logo with the exposure by:

accessing second time-location data identifying a second set of physical locations of a second vehicle at the corresponding points in time; and

determining whether the first vehicle was occluded from the camera by the second vehicle based on (1) the first time-location data, (2) the second time-location data, and (3) the time-camera view data.

30. A machine readable storage medium as defined in claim 29, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the machine to access vehicle data including a direction of travel of the first vehicle at the corresponding points in time.

31. A machine readable storage medium as defined in claim 30, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the machine to access a vehicle logo database, the vehicle logo database including logo location data that indicates a portion of the first vehicle on which the first logo was located.

32. A machine readable storage medium as defined in claim 31, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the machine to determine whether the first logo was visible by the camera by determining whether the portion of the first vehicle on which the first logo was located was within a line of sight of the camera.